Service Dog for Jenn

Hello! My name is Jenn. I am disabled and in need of help to obtain a new Service Dog. I have a medical condition called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). POTS is a form of dysautonomia and is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system. For most of my life I tried my best to manage the symptoms associated with my illness but once I reached adulthood I found it too difficult to manage my health and all of life's responsibilities. Along with my physical disability I also have some developmental disabilities such as autism and ADHD that frequently impact my daily life. For the past 5 years I used a task trained Service Dog to help mitigate my disabilities. Having a Service Dog gave me a tremendous amount of freedom. My Service Dog was specifically trained to alert and respond to my medical conditions which allowed me to live without many restrictions in life.

On June 15, 2022 my Service Dog, Luna (pictured above) was unexpectedly diagnosed with terminal cancer. She passed away 3 weeks later. Not having a Service Dog to help manage my condition has greatly impacted my overall health and wellbeing. In the past 7 weeks I have already had 2 severe episodes of syncope (fainting) that have sent me to the ER. Due to Luna's sudden diagnosis and death I was not prepared to begin finding my next Service Dog. Being a Service Dog handler is something I do not take lightly and I knew I wanted to take great care in choosing how I got my next partner.

If you know me you may know that I have only had huskies. When I knew I'd most likely be spending my life with a Service Dog by my side I thought I would have to "give up" on the breed as many huskies I know are not fit for service work. I feel so fortunate to have found Above The Clouds Siberian Service Dogs (ATC), a veteran owned and operated Service Dog organization here in Colorado that specifically breeds and trains nordic breeds for service. ATC has several successful teams across the country assisting people with all types of disabilities. To my knowledge, they are the only organization in the world that specifically trains Siberian Huskies for service and are one of the few that is able to train dogs to serve handlers with multiple disabilities.

ATC has matched me with a male Siberian Husky named Sabbath. Sabbath is AKC registered and comes from a line that has been specifically bred for service based off of genetics and temperament. He is still in training and because I am local I will hopefully be able to participate in some of his training. This is important to me because I really value my bond with my Service Dog as I rely so much on them. Sabbath will be specifically trained in a variety of tasks to mitigate my disabilities such as, medical response and recovery techniques, DPT for regulation (for both POTS and neurodivergence), picking up/retrieving items, and more.

Sabbath's trainer has told me that he is an absolute rockstar! She tells me that he is loyal and perfect for my adventures. When going through the process of finding an organization to work with I wanted to make sure that they fully understood my disabilities but also my deep connection to mountain adventure sports. ATC took all of this into consideration before matching me with a dog.

Sabbath's training, lodging, and medical costs (neuter, etc) will be $10,000. I will also need to raise an additional $2,000-3,000 to cover travel expenses to and from the facility for training weekends before his training is complete and I am able to bring him home. I would like to ask for your help in fundraising for this cause. By helping me get my next Service Dog you will be giving me my independence back and creating a lifelong partnership of trust, love, and adventure for Sabbath. You will also be giving my friends and family the peace of mind that I am being well taken care of by my new four-legged partner.

Thank you so much for reading my story, sharing, and supporting me in this next part of my journey!