Help Noah Bring His Dog Home

Help Noah Bring His Autism Assistance Dog Home

My name is Emily Hillgoth and my 7 year old son, Noah Spaulding, has autism, ADHD, sensory processing disorder and a mood disorder. Our family finished raising over $14,000 in just 4 1/2 months, in honor of my son, Noah Spaulding, to help him get a certified autism assistance dog from 4 Paws For Ability located in Xenia, Ohio.

We decided to obtain an autism assistance dog for Noah because he has reached some plateaus in this therapy and his team of doctors believe an autism assistance dog will help further his progress.  Noah has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS which is a form of atypical autism; but he still falls on the Autism Spectrum.  He has also been diagnosed with ADHD, a mood disorder, in which he is unable to regulate his mood properly and sensory processing disorder.

The autism assistance dog will help him with his confidence, self esteem, social interaction, anxiety, frustrations, anger, meltdowns which are totally different from a normal child's temper tantrum, deep pressure, self injury and behavior disruption.  Most of all his assistance dog will be his friend and companion to comfort him when he becomes upset and out of sorts.  Making friends for Noah is something he still struggles with and is still learning the aspects of social interaction.  Noah becomes very annoyed and frustrated with other children when they don't follow the rules or behave like he thinks they should.

Our training class is scheduled for February 2016 on how to learn to handle Noah's assistance dog and to give Noah time to bond with his dog. Our family needs to raise at least $3,500 so we can travel to 4 Paws in Ohio to attend the two week training class before we can bring Noah's assistance dog home.  The training sessions are very extensive and this is when we will learn all of the commands needed to handle the dog and how to handle public situations. 

The biggest cost of our trip is the two week stay at the hotel near 4 Paws.  That is where most of the donated money will go.  Any donated gift cards to grocery stores and restaurants would also be helpful.  This will allow us to buy food for our hotel room because the hotel has a full kitchen and fortunately the hotel offers free meals certain nights of the week.  
 
This is the last part of our journey....to bring Noah's assistance dog home. Please help Noah finish his journey.  We appreciate your continued support of Noah's cause.  The kindness of strangers and the community has been so overwhelming.  If you're interested in donating please go to www.gofundme.com/expenses4noah