Fund an autism support dog.

Hi, I’m searching for support in help to raise funds for an autism support dog for my daughter.

My daughter is 15 and is autistic and has sensory processing difficulties. This makes her very wary of going anywhere independently, even going to familiar places with us is a challenge which she finds very stressful and this then becomes stressful for the whole family. We have noticed that this stress is lowered dramatically when we have our little dog with us. She focusing solely on making our dog feel comfortable and training her and has great pleasure from this. Unfortunately, being a traumatised rescue, our dog is not suitable as an assistance dog and wouldn’t pass the public access test. We have looked at various Autism support dog charities and found the cost prohibitive for us, (over 13k) and the dogs they chose (often labs) would have a higher monthly cost to us and wouldn’t be the right mix with our very small dog. She is too old for the charities that offer dogs for children, and too young for the adult charities. Having worked with dogs for 20 plus years I know I have the skills and support to train a dog for/with her but the cost of buying a well bred puppy is pricey. We have always had rescues and taken on foster dogs and although we love doing this we need a dog who has had the best start in life and therefore has the best chance of becoming a well rounded adult. We have found a kennel club assured breeder who raises pups for health and temperament and uses the Puppy Culture Plan for early socialisation as well as Early Neurological Stimulation to ensure a great start for puppies.

This is a long term protect. It takes a minimum of two years to train a support dog so if we were able to buy a puppy now we would hope for her to be able to have a fully trained assistance dog by the time she is 18/19 years old. An assistance dog would be able to accompany her on public transport, into our local shops, find exits for her when needed, calm anxiety, make space around her so she isn’t crowded, stop damaging stress behaviours such as skin picking, and provide security and companionship at night… all of which I do at the moment. As a mother of course I would be happy to do this for her all her life, but as a growing young woman independence and confidence are vital. This would be life changing for her and I’d be grateful of any support.

Thank you for reading this!