Assistance Dog 4 BE

In 2011 Brett was finally diagnosed with a Major Depressive Disorder and a Generalised Anxiety Disorder, since then he has been through many different type of medications and treatments to try to combat these conditions but is also now showing some Schizophrenic Tendencies.

Although these treatments have helped for a time after being first prescribed Brett finds himself back in dark territory.

He has tried joining social clubs, retraining through TAFE course and volunteering at organisations to try distract himself from his depressive states without much success. He can be okay for weeks, maybe a couple of months, at a time but will then be dragged back into a reclused lifestyle with no physical interaction beyond the walls of his house.

Through many discussions with G.P.s, Psychiatrists, Psychologists and an Assistance Dog trainer its felt that Brett would greatly benefit from the help from the assistance of a psychiatric support dog.

He was on the list for a dog to be donated to help but with a 2 year waiting period and not to be guaranteed a dog at the end of that period is too much for his Anxieties and Depression.

So now we are trying to fundraise ourselves to get Brett a puppy from a select breeder that has worked with providing Assistance Dogs to charities before.

Assistance Dogs are not cheap by any means, with many organistions charging tens of thousand of dollars for a qualified Assistance Dog we are heading down the Owner/Trainer side of things.

We still need to raise the money to purchase a puppy, set up for the health, wellbeing and training of the dog; and to provide as many situations as humanly possible for the dog to encounter to get used to the everyday life of a working Assistance Dog.

The costs of training an Assistance Dog can reach up to $30,000 per year, but we definitely are not here to ask for that much as we will do as much as we can for as cheap as we can to achieve the same results.

The main tasks of the Assistance Dog for Brett will be to help alleviate Anxieties when being affected, deep pressure therapies when needed,  distractions from harmful and disparaging thoughts, provide the structure needed for raising a dog to force himself to take responsibilities and get out of the funk to look after something that cannot look after itself.

We also know that not everyone will be able to donate and we honestly don't expect to reach our target, but if you cannot donate could you please share this with your friends, family, collegues and groups because even every small donation will be going a long way to helping us achieve our goals.

Sincerely, thank you.