Service Dogs for Autistic Children

When Autism comes into your family your entire world changes. Hopes and dreams have to be rearranged. Keeping your child safe can become as overwhelming as the financial burden of never-ending therapies. Play groups, team sports, and visits with friends are replaced by support groups, speech therapy and trips to the Principal's office. Autistic children often suffer with insomnia and have a propensity to elope/wander without a sense of danger, which means that their parents don't sleep much. Worry about the future or whether they will be bullied in middle school pales in comparison to the threat of constant and immediate physical danger.

My son Anthony is nine years old and his journey with Autism is remarkable. You would never know that my skateboarding, piano-playing math whiz learned to speak less than four years ago or that he wore diapers until he was nearly six years old. If you see him diving in the pool or riding waves on his body board at the beach, it would be difficult to guess that only 2 years ago, Anthony had a crippling fear of running water that prevented him from going to the beach or even taking a bath. Our modest home is in the peaceful Cul-de-sac of a coastal community and looking at its ordinary appearance, it would be impossible to ascertain that every window and every door has a security latch designed to keep Anthony from walking outside and entering the homes of neighbors without reservation. Every day Anthony conquers something new. Last week it was multiplication. Maybe we will get through today with less than three melt-downs. Maybe this will be the week that he learns to tie his shoes or maybe this will be the week that he realizes that his grandparents and my parents are the very same two people:..maybe.

Anthony is sweet and loving and honest to his core, but friends don't come easy to a kid like mine. He is developmentally immature and socially awkward and prefers the company of animals over people most days. But Anthony has found a friend that can see past the nervous twitches, the odd behaviors and the constant incoherent chatter that comes with knowing my son. Meet my son Anthony and his best friend Moses...






Anthony and Moses have an amazing opportunity with the PAWS Training Center in Wilmington NC. During the course of the next year, Moses and Anthony will work together to bring out the best in one another.

Moses will learn to interrupt and decrease the length of Anthony's meltdowns and he will learn techniques for helping Anthony avoid dangerous situations.

Autism service dogs help deter insomnia and encourage language development through response to verbal commands. They also ease social anxiety when focus is shifted toward the dog and away from the child who often feels scrutinized.

Moses will learn to be an attentive companion while Anthony learns the importance of responsibility, loyalty, and friendship. Once they meet American Disability Association standards Anthony and Moses will be a certified therapy team that will visit assisted living facilities, children's hospital wards and even veterans of war dealing with PTSD.






Where will your donations go?

Alpha Training Camp for Moses will begin on July 1^st of 2013. Once the six week course is complete, Moses and Anthony will train side by side over the coming year with therapists and trainers to learn how to be a team in all aspects of life. The cost of this journey will total $12,000-$15,000 from the beginning stages of training through the final stages of testing and certification. The combined salaries of a nurse and a landscaper simply don't allow for this kind of extravagance so we are hoping and praying for the kindness of strangers. Once certified, Anthony and Moses will be able to return some of the kindness shown to them by reaching out to people in our surrounding communities that would benefit from the kind of healing that can only come from a paw.

All donations will be used to cover the Alpha training for Moses, handler training for Anthony, food, supplies, vet fees while training is in progress, testing fees, Certification fees, etc...

If you are interested in learning more about the foundation that helped us begin this journey please read about PAWS 4 People
and help spread the word about the awesome work they are doing to bring the outside world a little closer to kids like my Anthony!







A little more about Anthony...


Since Anthony's school cannot provide a 'shadow' to help Anthony with transitions between classes, he is not safe. We had to make the difficult decision to homeschool Anthony so he spends most of his days at his grandparent's farm. He adores the animals and has a quiet understanding of them that is difficult to put into words.

While most kids are learning math by doing worksheets, Anthony learns math by calculating feed, making change in the hardware store and figuring out how much seed is needed per row in the garden.


We have tried desperately to keep Anthony's life as close to "normal" as we possibly can.

Team sports aren't an option for Anthony because the rules are far too complicated and it's not feasible to make the entire team play at a pace that is comfortable for Anthony.

So, we participate in local Autism surf and skate events where Anthony is free to roam with supervision and participate in silence without judgment----or chatter endlessly about nothing in particular if he feels compelled to do so.

We were blessed to find a kind-hearted piano teacher that has help us bring the gift of music to Anthony and we were all pleased to find that he has quite a talent for the piano that is helping us teach him the art of discipline.



If you made it to this point in the page, you have invested a good portion of your time learning about our amazing son and his remarkable journey with Autism. So please share this link on your Facebook page and forward it to your email contacts. Because above and beyond this fundraiser and whether or not you choose to donate, awareness is the single most valuable gift you can give my son. For that, We thank you.

Sincerely,
The Perozzi Family





***************************UPDATE**************************
Anthony's fundraiser was a success and Moses completed Alpha camp with flying colors! He and Anthony work very hard together every day to overcome some of Anthony's biggest challenges. They have already mastered their insomnia training and Anthony has slept 7 nights in a row in his OWN bed, ALL night long!

We have been blessed enough to be able to start a scholarship in Anthony's name to get another child started on this amazing journey and we want very much to help