A Service Dog for Karen

This page was created to help raise funds to have one of our current dogs trained to be a service dog for my daughter. My daughter, Karen, has autism. She is high functioning, but there are times when tasks and the world become too much for her to handle. She does have tantrums that go above and beyond, like most autistic children that I have known. There are times that she lacks focus or has a repetitive behavior that needs someone to redirect her attention. She loves to learn and does her best on most things. She must do things until they are right and tends to get frustrated if she can’t. There are things that can make her become anxious quickly. I never know when we are out if something might become too overwhelming for her. I have been blessed in that both of my children have been able and currently attend Cornerstone Autism Center. They are amazing and work one on one with every child to give them the direction and assistance at every turn. Karen has progressed to the point that she is going to be transitioning to a regular school. Anyone that has a special needs child knows how terrifying and scaring this can be. There will be no one to individually work with her or calm her down from her anxiety. She is a very bright 5 year old, but I fear she may fall through the cracks or worse; get kicked out for behaviors.
A solution for our family is to have a service dog. A dog trained to react and help Karen with everyday things including school would open up a bigger world for us. There are so many things that we avoid or just simply cannot do with two autistic children. That uncertainty and stress that goes into every time we go out would be greatly reduced. A service dog would be able to help her in so many ways that it is hard to explain. I will be able to do simple things such as going to the grocery store with them. Currently I do as many things as possible while they are at the center to avoid any type of behaviors or outbursts that may happen. I did think over the possibility of adding another dog to our household by going the more traditional route of getting a service dog. Karen already has a great bond with our 1 yr old Pyrenees, Dani; so that would greatly affect Dani. There are not many places that you can send a dog to get trained to be a service dog. After locating one, it seemed to be the best option for us. Once all of the t’s are crossed and i’s dotted, she will be on her way to getting fully trained to be Karen’s service dog.

The program Dani will be going into is with Ty Brown of DogBehaviorOnline.com. They have gotten great results with dogs and have videos to prove it. I have spoken with Ty, himself, about what I want from a service dog. It is a tall order, but they are willing to take it on. They have an amazing program in place to help people that need to have their dogs trained to be service dogs.