YOU won’t find more helpful dogs than those at Ferndown’s Woofability.

Five animals from the charity charmed children with their unusual skills at Bournemouth and Poole College.

They are working dogs trained to help disabled people get on with life. Skills include taking off a pair of socks, emptying a washing machine, or picking up the post.

Around 240 college students and children from its nursery watched them in action during a pirate-themed fundraiser.

The students collected pieces of eight – one and two pence pieces – at the North Road and Lansdowne Campuses.

Jane Harlow, head of curriculum for childhood and social care studies, has made Woofability the department’s local charity for the year.

Her students raised £719 and the money will be spent on training new dogs.

There were two dogs at each campus and Jane Harlow said: “One was only a puppy and he couldn’t do much yet apart from charm people.”

A fifth dog, Chester, visited the Fulcrum Centre near Tower Park, and Knighton Heath Music Centre in Wallisdown.

Woofability aims to train 20 dogs per year at a cost of around £750 per dog.

The charity said each animal needs two years training and there are around 2,500 people in Dorset and Hampshire who are in need of one.

Founder Jenny Clarke set it up three years ago and her faithful friend is a golden retriever called Bubba.

She has been a wheelchair user since breaking her back in a work accident 29 years ago.

“I don’t know what I would do without mine,” she told the Daily Echo last year.

“I fell out of my wheelchair on to a busy main road once and my dog literally pulled me out of the way of the traffic.”