Righteous Pups Australia (RPA), formerly known as Righteous Pups Bendigo, is a not for profit organisation, which became an Incorporated Association in Victoria, on 4 July 2005. The Association has been endorsed by the Australian Taxation Office as a Tax Concession Charity with Deductible Gift Recipients Status.
RPA was established in 2003 with its mission to raise and train assistance dogs to do a variety of practical tasks for children and adults with disabilities, and to act as companion dogs for the elderly and socially isolated. The impact each dog makes on the life of their recipient is priceless, giving recipients a greater level of independence, self esteem and an overall improvement in psychological well-being and quality of life. Each dog costs approximately $29,000 to rear and train over a two year period. At the completion of this time the dogs are placed with their recipients at no cost.
Another part of the vision of RPA is to work with academically and/or socially challenged high school students through our S.W.A.T (Specifically Working with At-risk Teens) program. Working with animals has proven to have a major positive impact on teenagers, especially those with anger and depression related issues. The program also incorporates a training team composed of local unemployed young people, giving them a sense of purpose and significance. These trainees are now highly competent dog trainers who absolutely love working with the dogs. There is a tremendous sense of personal pride when you are involved in something greater than yourself and we have seen young people's lives changed. A further component of the program involves regular visits to schools, hospitals, nursing homes etc where the trainers and their dogs spend time interacting.
In 2005 we were approached by a family in Bendigo, who has an 8 year old daughter with autism. Her parents wanted to obtain a trained assistance dog capable of supporting the family and become a meaningful companion for their child. This request was outside the area of our existing expertise, and as such, we conducted a search to identify an organisation within Australia that currently provided this service. Surprisingly, we could not find one Australian organisation proficient in the training and placement of assistance dogs for people with autism. We extended our search internationally and discovered a United States based organisation known as 4 Paws for Ability, who were the first in the US to train and place assistance dogs for people with Autism and whom have partnered with other organisations throughout the world to train and place assistance dogs with people living with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
In 2006 we sent our first trainer to the US to learn how to train and place assistance dogs for children with ASD. Kelly Stevens completed her cadetship in mid 2007 and we presently have 10 Kadnook Labradors training as Assistance dogs for children with ASD.
RPA is presently the only organisation in Australia to train assistance dogs for children with ASD. These dogs will be placed throughout Australia and we presently have 142 families throughout Australia on the waiting list.