Isaac's Service Dog

This is our son, Isaac.  He just turned 7 years old and Isaac has autism.  He is an amazing boy.  He is caring, kind, inquisitive and curious about everything he comes in contact with.  He also has a great deal of anxiety and the world in which he lives can be a very overwhelming and scary place.  He gets frustrated very easily and is prone to meltdowns and tantrum like behavior.  Sleep is also a great challenge for Isaac.  He very rarely sleeps through the night and is up at least once about 70% of nights.  Sometimes he awakens afraid and anxious, sometimes he is wide awake and laughing and playful and sometimes he just needs the comfort of me lying next to him to feel safe enough to go back to sleep.  We have been researching service dogs for kids with autism for 6 months or so.  These dogs have a wonderful calming effect on these kids and help in all areas autism children struggle; behavior, communication, socialization and sleeping.  The problems we have encountered with the organizations who train these animals are twofold: 1) the waiting lists are on average 3-5 years long and  2) the cost of placement for is very expensive.  Depending on the organization, it typically costs $20-30,000 to raise and train a servive dog.  Because of that, we are looking at purchasing a specific breed of dog that has been shown to have the behavioral characteristics and trainability that we need in an animal and are using a private animal behaviorist to train the animal specific to Isaac and his needs.  This allows Isaac to benefit from having a service animal much sooner than with the private organizations.  Again, this process is very costly.  Our preference would be to be able to train a full fledged service animal that by law is able to accompany Isaac anywhere he goes; to school, Dr. appointments, errands in town, restaurants etc.  The cost of doing that is approximately  $18,000.  Our other option is to train a service companion animal that only benefits Isaac at home.  It is not able to be a public service animal.  This dog would be trained to go to Isaac and apply pressure on him, cuddle with him or make himself available to be petted based on behavior cues from Isaac or a verbal cue from me.  It would also be able to sleep with him.  The cost of training this type of animal is approximately $8,000.  We are hoping to have the process began in the next few months, whichever route we are able to go.
For everyone who takes the time to read our story, thank you.  If you are able to donate to Isaac's cause, please know how grateful we are and what a difference you are making in the life of this child.  For those who aren't able to donate, just by reading this, you too are helping Isaac and all those like him.  Maybe by reading this, you will have a little more awareness about autism and its challenges which may then help your understanding of the next child with autism that you  meet.  Awareness, acceptance and understanding are so crucial to these kids. They have great things to offer us all. 

Thank you all,

Krista and Scott Schultz; Isaac's parents