Training of Assistance Dog for my son

Hi my name is Rachel, my son is just 12 years old and has a hidden disability of autism ADHD sensory processing PDA and severe anxiety.

To assist him at the age of 9 I applied to a charity for an assistance dog and unfortunately told he was out of the age bracket, to be considered for the programme they only go up to age 7.

Sadly with the severity of his disability he has not been able to attend school since April 2022, which being a single parent. I am understandably trying my upmost to do everything I can to help and support him as he feels he has no purpose in life.

I managed to release what I could from my small pension to purchase a golden retriever. I then located an online training program and trainer to mentor the training for an assistance dog for my son. As pictured above.

We are so happy that Teddy passed his puppy assistance dog and bronze training. To fully complete the next levels it can take up to 2 years, but it will be so worth it. We need to now start his Silver.

I have set up this go-fund me page in aid of raising money for Teddy to continue through the next stages of the program to be able to assist my son.

I have been very fortunate to have been supported by a small local charity by donating us £500 to start the program. This covered the puppy training stage.

Like any parent would, I want to be able to support my son in anyway possible to give the reassurance that he has a purpose in life, with the assistance of Teddy by his side.

I have nothing to loose and everything to gain for my son.

This is the write up from a charity who supported us.

£500 donation has gone to a single mum of an 11 year old boy C who has ASD/ADHD and Demand Avoidance. Times have been incredibly hard for them. Parenting this type of neurodiversity can be extremely challenging.

C has struggled at school, masking his distress as he tried to cope being in the school environment. He has been bullied and suffers separation anxiety. Eventually it all became too much and he got to a point when he just could no longer attend and has not been in school since April 2022.

It will have been a traumatic and damaging time for C and his mum. They are battling to get C a place in a specialist school that will hopefully be more suited to his needs, but that is tough fight and it is likely C will be at home for the coming months with very little alternative provision available.

Whilst being out of school, C & his mum have been researching support dogs - they can make such transformative differences when properly trained.

We were asked it we could make a donation towards the training of the dog, Teddy.

Vicki spoke at length to C’s mum. She definitely deserves for Teddy to help both her son and herself and our donation means she can start the training as early as possible to have to best chance of success.

We were pleased to help. It is another example of our donation not only helping out financially but also reminding someone who is having a desperately hard time that others care about them.

We hope C and his mum have the best of times with Teddy and wish them lots of luck for their school placement appeal and a more settled future

Thank you so much for reading this