Ally for Alice - A Service Dog for Alice

If you don’t know our daughter Alice, you are missing out. She is charismatic, kind, loving, and funny but has struggled to get to the best version of her life.

For years we have struggled to figure out the best way to help Alice have a life she loves. When she was a baby, it took a long time to get people to understand that she wasn’t “going at her own pace” or a “late bloomer.” She was 18 months old when we got her therapy services through Michigan’s Early On program. Though we finally had help, we were still lost because we didn’t have an actual diagnosis. We were simply told “cognitive and developmental delays.” That doesn’t give you any answers when desperately searching for a cause. It was incredibly frustrating and broke our hearts that we couldn’t get Alice the support we knew she needed.

After Alice turned two, she had an MRI, which determined that she had Cerebral Palsy. This was a step forward, but as we began treatment and care, we knew we were still missing something. We continued therapies and testing.

When she was five years old, Alice was diagnosed with atypical absence seizures (epilepsy) and ADHD and was put on medication. Things got a little better, but as time passed, we noticed she was often irritable and not behaving like the little girl we knew. We did multiple overnight EEGs, and when Alice was eight years old, it was determined that she was seizure free! We were so excited that we could start weaning her off her seizure meds - we went home happy to take a step forward.

Unfortunately, we didn’t understand that her seizure medication was also a mood stabilizer. Alice was learning emotional regulation from scratch at eight years old, and our girl had it TOUGH. Her emotions were utterly unpredictable, and she didn’t know how to cope with them at all. School was not her happy place as it had been. She was lashing out at staff and peers. Home was no better. Her older sister and younger brother had no idea what to do with this highly volatile, angry version of Alice. We were racking our brains to improve the situation, taking steps that included testing for Autism Spectrum Disorder.

During this turmoil, Ron’s parents went out of town and dropped off their pit bull, Tadashi, for us to puppy sit. And boom, it was a miracle out of nowhere: Dashi followed Alice everywhere. He would lie on her lap when she was playing with her dolls. He would sleep with her at night. Best of all, he would go and nudge her or lick her face when she started to get upset, and she snapped right out of it! He became a permanent member of our household in short order.

Soon after, Alice was formerly diagnosed with Autism, another fantastic step towards getting her the support she needs. However, we recently lost Dashi, and it’s been challenging. Alice misses him terribly and feels the effects without the comfort he provided.

With this new diagnosis and seeing the massive effect even an untrained but loving dog could have on her day, mood, and outlook, we have decided to move forward with securing a service dog for Alice.

As wonderful as Tadashi was for Alice, he was not a trained service dog. He intuitively performed many services a trained companion would for her but could not accompany her everywhere. She struggles in new places and is extremely socially anxious. She gets stressed or overwhelmed, and sometimes sensory input is the only way to calm her and help her feel safe. There are numerous studies about the positive effect of service dogs on individuals with Autism, and we feel, given our experiences, this is the best course for Alice. A trained dog who can accompany her most places she goes will significantly impact her life.

While we 100% know this is the best course for our girl, it is also wildly expensive. We have explored the amazing organizations that aid with this process, but they are, understandably, overwhelmed. The process can take upwards of three years. Instead, we have decided to go forward on our own, a process that is much quicker but also much more costly.

The training through Clever Canine Dog Training is $9,632, and the puppy itself will cost roughly $4,500, as the programs require a specific breed of dog purchased from a reputable breeder. This has happened quickly, and the breeder has a Labrador puppy ready for us as soon as April.

All of this to say, we are humbly asking for your help to help our baby girl. Anything you can spare would be greatly appreciated; if you can’t, just spreading the word would be a huge help!

With love,

Lauren, Ron, Erin, Christopher, and our girl Alice