To apply for a vacancy, please visit our current vacancies page and select the role you would like to apply for. Please read the details of the role carefully by downloading the job description. Click ‘apply’ and complete a short pre-application form and submit your CV and covering letter. Our online form may include mandatory questions marked with an asterisk, please ensure you answer these questions in order to progress.
Some vacancies may have additional role-specific questions to complement your application.
You are more than welcome to apply for more than one role at a time. You will need to submit an application form for each role you are interested in, and we recommend that you ensure you are able to demonstrate where you meet the criteria as detailed in the ‘role knowledge and skills’ section of the job description, as they are likely to different.
Applications must be received before midnight on the closing date stated on the job advert. We reserve the right to remove job adverts ahead of the closing date should we receive high volumes of candidates.
Unfortunately, if the deadline has passed or the job advert is no longer on our website, we are unable to accept any further applications.
We do not accept speculative enquiries for jobs, and we are unable to CVs on file. If you do not see a current vacancy that you are interested in, please sign up for our job alerts, so we can email you when a role that may be of interest to you has been posted to our website.
Our careers page is updated as soon as a vacancy becomes available. To keep up to date with vacancies of interested, please sign up to our job alerts. You can also follow us on our social media pages to keep up to date with our vacancies.
At Canine Partners we value the personal touch, therefore we ensure that we contact all our candidates personally to let them know the outcome of their application, either way. The volume of candidates we receive may impact our timescales, but please rest assured that we will always get back to you as soon as we are able to.
There are three type of employment checks that we make:
Right to work – all roles will be subject to a right to work check. You must be eligible to work in the UK before applying for a role and be able to provide evidence to support this. This is usually a passport or visa documentation – other documents may be applicable.
Employment references – any offer of appointment will be subject to receiving a minimum of two satisfactory reference from your previous employers, or other character references if determined appropriate.
DBS (or PVG if located in Scotland) – due to the nature of some of our roles, you may be required to complete a disclosure check.
A person’s criminal record will not, in itself, debar someone from being appointed to a post. We fully recognise the contribution that ex-offenders can make as employees and volunteers and welcome applications from them. Suitable applicants will not be refused posts because of offences which are not relevant to, and do not place them at or make them a risk in, the role for which they are applying.
We will ask you to complete a criminal records declaration as part of your employment paperwork and only if the role is covered by or exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. All cases will be examined on an individual basis taking into consideration the factors surrounding the offence (e.g. seriousness of the offence, length of time since it occurred, the age of the candidate at the time, circumstances surrounding the offence etc.)
Unfortunately, we are not able to give feedback at application stage, due to high volumes of applications.
To shortlist candidates, we look at your CV and cover letter to find evidence of where your skills, knowledge and experience meet our essential criteria. This must be clearly demonstrated in your application as we are not able to make assumptions on candidates’ abilities.
Whether or not you are shortlisted can depend on the quality of the pool of candidates as well. For example, if we have several candidates who all meet our essential criteria, then we will further shortlist using our desirable criteria (if applicable to the role). We are aware that due to the nature of our work, we receive a number of applications from those who are looking to make a career change, therefore, we are open to exploring the transferable skills someone could bring to us from another sector, however you must still use your application as an opportunity to demonstrate how these transferable skills could match with our essential criteria.
If you are new to, or it has been a while since, you have written a CV or job application, many major job boards provide support and advice on how to write CVs and cover letters, we would suggest starting with a template and personalising to suit your skills and experience.
Our top tips:
If you have interviewed with us, as part of our post-interview communication, we will ask you if you would like feedback from your assessments.
For some roles, there may be minimum criteria to be met before you progress with your application. For example, we may use a pre-application question to determine whether you have an essential qualification, licence, or membership to undertake the role, and if you do not meet this minimum requirement then you will not be able to continue with the application process.
Any automated decisions will be highlighted to you in the application process, and you will be required to agree that you are happy to proceed using this process. If you need to contact us in relation to the pre-application question, please see our contact details below.
We only contact your references after a job offer has been accepted. You will be asked to confirm the name of two referees that we will contact once you have returned your contract paperwork. The references you provide must be previous employers (one must be your current/most recent employer).
If this is your first job since leaving full-time education, we will accept references from your head-teacher, further education tutor or lecturer.
If you are currently working or have been working in a freelance or self-employed capacity and are unable to give a previous employer as a reference, we will ask you for alternative references from someone who has benefit from your services such as a client or character references from a professional that knows you well. We do not accept references from relatives.
Like many organisations, our ways of working have evolved in recent years, with our employees working in a variety of ways across the country. Whilst some of our roles have been determined as essential for on-site working, many of our roles have geographical location bases or can be completed remotely. It will be clear on the job advert whether the role is expected to be on-site, remote working or hybrid. If you have any questions about the location, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
We are happy to consider flexible working options on both working patterns and locations, our ability to support this can be role or workload dependent. You would be more than welcome to detail your flexible working or preferred working pattern/locations on your application form, and we will happily discuss with you at interview stage should your application be successful.
Please see our ‘Work experience’ page for more information.
In 2018, Canine Partners became accredited as a Disability Confident Committed Employer under the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) Disability Confident Scheme.
Disability Confident is a government scheme that promotes the benefits to businesses of recruiting and retaining people with disabilities. The scheme offers advice and support to employers, enabling them to actively seek, hire and retain disabled people. Organisations’ complete a Disability Confident self-assessment, agree to undertake all of the core actions to be a Disability employer and offer at least one activity to attract and retain disabled staff.
This means that, as an employer, we are positive about employing disabled people ensuring that people with disabilities and long-term health conditions feel supported, engaged and able to fulfil their potential in the workplace. We offer a guaranteed interview to disabled candidates who meet the essential criteria.
We will ensure we offer support in making reasonable adjustments for candidates where required. If you require extra support during the application process, please contact us via email at recruitment@caninepartners.org.uk
If you require adjustments at interview stage, please ensure you let us know when accepting the interview invitation.
Please see our candidate privacy notice.
We understand that we may receive applications from further afield these days, and we will try to ensure we take this into consideration at interview stage where possible. Most of our first stage interviews take place via video call, with second stage interviews either taking place at our training centre in Osgathorpe, Leicestershire or if the role is located in a different part of the country then we may host interviews in an alternative location closer to where the role is based. Unfortunately, we are unable to pay for candidates’ travel expenses so please do keep this in mind before agreeing to attend an interview.
Specialised dog training is at the heart of what we do at Canine Partners, and these roles can be very exciting and rewarding, therefore it is no surprise that we receive a lot of queries about how to gain experience to become a dog trainer and what qualifications we look for.
Unfortunately, in the UK dog training does not have its own regulatory body, which can make it difficult for those wanting to start out in a career in dog training. However, the good news is, this means there are a variety of ways to gain relevant experience that can include or not include formal qualifications.
Currently, we have three types of roles that work on training with our dogs that are hugely varied.
Puppy Training Coordinators - trainers who work with the youngest of our dogs in training, aged 8 weeks up to 14 months. Puppies are placed with volunteer puppy parents and our trainers provide support to volunteers with the early training and development of the puppies, learning basic skills and obedience before puppies can move on to ‘big school’ to learn their bespoke training. These roles are located in satellites across the UK.
Advanced Trainers – trainers who take on the next stage of our dog training, aged 14 months +. During this stage trainers will train, match and place dogs with a disabled person (the partner). This training stage builds on the skills and basic obedience learned in puppy homes taking the basic commands of ‘Touch, ‘Tug’, and ‘Retrieve’ to train more specialised skills such as touching a button at a traffic light, tugging open a door or retrieving a dropped item. These roles are based at our Midlands Training Centre, with local and long-distance travel to place dogs with their partner.
Aftercare Instructors – trainers who manage the final stage of dog training, aged 18 months up to retirement age (12 years +). At this stage, our dogs have been expertly matched and placed with a partner, our trainers support the initial stages of the partnership in the home, workplace, and leisure areas for our partners.
They work on additional specialised training work, that is bespoke to the partners lifestyle and provide ongoing training, advice, and support throughout the duration of the partnership. These roles are based across the UK, supporting a geographical area of partnerships.
All of these roles involve training dogs, instructing and coaching people, and general administration. There may also be times where these roles support with providing demonstrations of our work for fundraising opportunities.
Working with dogs will include travel and working outside in all weathers.
We expect high standards in our basic obedience so attention to detail and consistency is key. Our dogs need to build on these basic skills to learn specialist tasks to support their new partners’ needs. Trainers will need a good working and theoretical knowledge of training basic skills, understanding and modifying behaviours and problem-solving undesirable behaviours using positive, ethical, and science-based methods.
Our trainers will work with a range of people with varying abilities, and experiences, including partners, volunteers, members of the public, other members of the charity, as well as dogs. Therefore, it is essential for our trainers to have outstanding people skills including communication, coaching or training and empathy.
There are many skills and experience that will set you up for success for a training role. Dog training and behavioural knowledge and skill is essential and can be gained from formal animal-related education or practical hands-on experience. Practical hands-on experience could be gained from employment, self-employment, or voluntary positions, including but not limited to:
Having a natural rapport and understanding of dogs and a willingness to learn and adapt will be beneficial.
Many dog trainers will attest that when training dogs, you must be able to train people, therefore experience providing training, coaching, or teaching at one-to-one or group levels and across varying abilities would be beneficial to this crucial part of the roles.
We do not have an affiliation with a training body and do not recommend specific training courses, as we find choosing a course can be a personal choice with many varying factors (price/location/availability). You must make sure that the course objectives are fit for your requirements.
When we are looking at selecting trainers, we would look for those who can demonstrate knowledge and understanding of positive reward-based training that align with ethical and science backed methods.
Please submit your question to the recruitment@caninepartners.org.uk. We will answer your question as soon as possible and may add it to the FAQ to help future candidates.
© Canine Partners 2024.
Canine Partners, registered charity in England and Wales (803680) and Scotland (SC039050).
A company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales company number 2516146. Registered office: Ashby Road, Osgathorpe, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE12 9SR
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