Therapy Companion Dog for our Autistic Son
Donation protected
My wife and I are reaching out and asking for donations to get a Therapy/Companion Dog for our 4 year old son Tekoa.
It was September 2018 when we received the official diagnosis that Tekoa was on the Autism spectrum. It was a stressful and confusing time, but it brought some closure to the concerns we had with his development. We finally knew why he seemed behind his peers and why he exhibited some odd behavior that our other 3 children had not. Autism is best described as "A serious developmental disorder that impairs the ability to communicate and interact and leads to abnormal behavioral issues. There is no cure but treatment can help".
In an effort to start treatment right away we immediately got him involved with ABA (applied behavior analysis) Therapy. Tekoa goes to therapy every day from 12pm-4pm to learn the basics of functioning with Autism. Although Tekoa cannot talk, he has always shown an interest in animals. A few weeks back my wife arrived to pick up Tekoa from his therapy session when one of the therapists told my wife that a therapy dog had been brought into the clinic that day. She expressed that after being in ABA Therapy for over 15 years, she had never seen a child makes such tremendous progress as Tekoa did that day interacting with the dog. The dog brought a calmness to our son and allowed him the ability to focus on the actual therapy and prevent behavioral outbursts that are so common with him.
It wasn't until this realization that we had ever considered getting a dog. With 4 total children adding a dog into the mix seemed like something we would never do, but after the therapists feedback we decided to do some tests. We reached out to a close friend who lives near-bye and asked is he could bring his 5 year old Golden-doodle to our house and see first hand how Tekoa reacted. The results were remarkable. The picture below is Tekoa with the dog and it was incredible to see the change in his behavior when the dog was around.
We immediately started doing research on dogs and specifically wanted to find a therapy and/or companion dog that could be trained to assist with Autistic children. One of the scariest elements of Autistic children is their tendency to "wander off". It's very common for an Autistic child to walk out the front door and just keep walking. The therapy dogs are trained to sense this and alert the parents and physically herd the child back towards safety.
After a thorough research campaign and talking with many experienced folks, we determined this is a step we want to take, while realizing it will be an expensive one. We have found a breeder near us here in Texas with Golden-doodle puppies (one of the top ranked breeds for therapy dogs) and the cost for the puppy will be $1800. Additionally, we have contacted a certified trainer who will spend the first 6 months with the puppy training it to fulfill the role we need. We estimate this training will cost between $2500-$4000 depending on how quickly the puppy adopts to the training. There are additional fees around accreditations needed to be a certified therapy dog and basics supplies and veterinarian costs associated putting the total somewhere around $8000 all in.
We are asking for help from friends, family, and any other generous people out there to see if we can round up at least half of the costs so we can afford to invest in this much needed resource for our precious son Tekoa. If there is anything out there that can make his life easier, help him progress in therapy and ultimately keep him safe, we are willing to do it...and we think getting a dog with the professional therapy training can provide it.
My wife, Tekoa's 3 siblings, myself and most importantly Tekoa, will forever be grateful for what come of this fundraise. We will continue to post updates as they come to keep ya'll posted.
Thank you so much,
Nate & Ashley Lourie
It was September 2018 when we received the official diagnosis that Tekoa was on the Autism spectrum. It was a stressful and confusing time, but it brought some closure to the concerns we had with his development. We finally knew why he seemed behind his peers and why he exhibited some odd behavior that our other 3 children had not. Autism is best described as "A serious developmental disorder that impairs the ability to communicate and interact and leads to abnormal behavioral issues. There is no cure but treatment can help".
In an effort to start treatment right away we immediately got him involved with ABA (applied behavior analysis) Therapy. Tekoa goes to therapy every day from 12pm-4pm to learn the basics of functioning with Autism. Although Tekoa cannot talk, he has always shown an interest in animals. A few weeks back my wife arrived to pick up Tekoa from his therapy session when one of the therapists told my wife that a therapy dog had been brought into the clinic that day. She expressed that after being in ABA Therapy for over 15 years, she had never seen a child makes such tremendous progress as Tekoa did that day interacting with the dog. The dog brought a calmness to our son and allowed him the ability to focus on the actual therapy and prevent behavioral outbursts that are so common with him.
It wasn't until this realization that we had ever considered getting a dog. With 4 total children adding a dog into the mix seemed like something we would never do, but after the therapists feedback we decided to do some tests. We reached out to a close friend who lives near-bye and asked is he could bring his 5 year old Golden-doodle to our house and see first hand how Tekoa reacted. The results were remarkable. The picture below is Tekoa with the dog and it was incredible to see the change in his behavior when the dog was around.
We immediately started doing research on dogs and specifically wanted to find a therapy and/or companion dog that could be trained to assist with Autistic children. One of the scariest elements of Autistic children is their tendency to "wander off". It's very common for an Autistic child to walk out the front door and just keep walking. The therapy dogs are trained to sense this and alert the parents and physically herd the child back towards safety.
After a thorough research campaign and talking with many experienced folks, we determined this is a step we want to take, while realizing it will be an expensive one. We have found a breeder near us here in Texas with Golden-doodle puppies (one of the top ranked breeds for therapy dogs) and the cost for the puppy will be $1800. Additionally, we have contacted a certified trainer who will spend the first 6 months with the puppy training it to fulfill the role we need. We estimate this training will cost between $2500-$4000 depending on how quickly the puppy adopts to the training. There are additional fees around accreditations needed to be a certified therapy dog and basics supplies and veterinarian costs associated putting the total somewhere around $8000 all in.
We are asking for help from friends, family, and any other generous people out there to see if we can round up at least half of the costs so we can afford to invest in this much needed resource for our precious son Tekoa. If there is anything out there that can make his life easier, help him progress in therapy and ultimately keep him safe, we are willing to do it...and we think getting a dog with the professional therapy training can provide it.
My wife, Tekoa's 3 siblings, myself and most importantly Tekoa, will forever be grateful for what come of this fundraise. We will continue to post updates as they come to keep ya'll posted.
Thank you so much,
Nate & Ashley Lourie
Co-organizers (2)
Nate Lourie
Organizer
Cedar Park, TX
Ashley Lourie
Co-organizer