Help Support Sketch the Service Doodle in Training

After experiencing several traumatic events throughout my life and the aftermath of each, I  was diagnosed with non-service related PTSD and Anxiety.

 

I’m not able to fully avoid triggers at work, home, or in public. This has controlled my entire life. I’ve tried therapy and many medications which haven’t really helped or have side-effects that are somehow worse than the symptoms they claim to mitigate.

 

I want to regain my independence. I want to be able to go out to public places without fear. I want to talk to people I don’t know without worry. I want to sleep without concern of nightmares. I want to be around people without panic. 

 

My medical team has determined that a service animal trained with very specific tasks will allow me to regain my confidence and my freedom to live again.

If you have questions about the difference between a service dog, therapy dog, and ESA please feel free to ask. I’m also going to link to a website below for further information.

https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/training/service-working-therapy-emotional-support-dogs/

My dog will attend specialized training to mitigate my disability including creating a buffer in crowds, detect presence of person in dark rooms, alert to someone approaching from behind, turning on lights, medication retrieval and reminders, panic attack response, and he will learn all commands both verbally and in hand signals. For those that don’t know, in addition to my PTSD diagnoses I also have MS. Sometimes, I lose the ability to communicate verbally, making the use of hand signals incredibly important. 

 

Unfortunately, many service organizations have very long wait times and still require you to pay for a considerable amount for the dog and the training. Given the circumstances around my need, my age, and my diagnoses, there isn’t much in way of financial assistance available. In order to move forward, I will need to raise the money for the dog, the training, and vet bills on my own.

 

Please help if you can! Help comes in a lot of different ways including sharing, asking local businesses to profit share for a period of time or for a special event, ask your work place or union to fundraise on my behalf, adopt my cause and host your own fundraisers, etc.

 

All help, in all of its different forms, is needed and much appreciated!