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Service dog for Logan

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Hello everyone,
May I first say thank you for even coming to this page and looking at our story. It is most certainly not easy for me as a mother to lay everything down. So, thank you for even reading this. I’d like to thank you for your support for joining and building a safer environment for my son. Your contribution can help achieve a solution.



Meet our son,
his name is Logan, and he is eight years old. He is a very energetic little boy who loves to play and be around his family and friends; he loves his younger brother so much; they are very close. Logan enjoys being outside playing, playing video games, and spending time with his grandparents. We discovered nearly two years ago that Logan has problems with body space, understanding danger (like walking across the street), understanding how to figure basic things, like reading and tying his shoes, among others. With the help of his school, much testing, and numerous doctor visits, it has been determined that Logan is autistic, with a cognitive learning disability. As a result, during school hours, Logan participates in speech therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. These are a great help, and for that, we are incredibly grateful. Logan still struggles with his autism when he is at home. He has night terrors and will wake up and start screaming and flares up until we put the lights on and hold him tightly even though he does not want help. During our Arizona monsoon storms, we have the power go out from time to time at home, and the thunder and lightning makes Logan feel very overwhelmed to the point where he will run and hide and continue his panic attack. We try to leave the house and go to a nearby store such as Walmart with lights on to help. Logan can be overwhelmed around people from time to time. At times he will lash out and tries to inflict harm upon himself. Other times he will scream and get angry. Certain sounds at times can trigger these responses and will affect his ability to function. As parents, we try to do everything in our power to make our little Logan feel more comfortable in his own skin/household.

As a result, we feel that Logan is in need of a service dog, so we are working on getting a PTSD/Autism dog to help him during his trying times. The tasks of psychiatric/Autism service dogs are varied and are trained in areas such as blocking, deep pressure therapy, interrupting nightmare anxiety, and panic interruption.

Service dogs for children with autism spectrum disorder provide companionship, improve social skills, improve verbal/non-verbal communication, facilitate interactions with the world around them, teach life skills, interrupt behaviors and clam emotional outbursts. Service dogs can provide a link to reality, provide companionship and can aid their human-partner navigate and integrate into family, work, and recreational activities.

We need to have a service dog that is trained and capable of doing all of these things for our little guy. (you can read more on psychiatric service dogs on the barktobasic101.org website)
We have looked at several different organizations for many months and found that the wait-list for all of them is years long. I continuously prayed to God to help us find a way to help our son with his needs. Discouraged, we felt like we would be forced to give up.

Then it happened! I took my family to the local pumpkin patch, where I encountered a lady with a service dog in training. I usually don’t approach people, but I felt a powerful urge to say something to her and ask questions. I was astounded to find that she is a trainer for an organization that turned out to be in my small town, very close to my home. I was so happy as soon as she said that, I had an almost overwhelming urge to want to hug her. Usually, I’m not particularly eager to hug or touch people, but I had such a fantastic feeling in my heart. I had to hug her, and I cried. I recounted my son’s story to her, and she shared her contact and company details with me.
Since then, we have been in close contact with each other, and I genuinely feel that God guided me to find the help I have been praying for.


There is no doubt that such an incredible animal is a blessing to have for my son’s safety; however, a highly trained service dog is a strain on our family financially. The cost of these service animals can range anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000. These cost cover: vet visits, training, boarding, food, and home training with my son. Training services can take up to 10 months or more. And unfortunately service dogs are not covered by insurance as of yet. So we must use our own funds and try to raise some to help get us to our goal.
We have used all of our savings, but we still need some help.

We are asking for help to reach our goal of 7,000 to help with the remaining costs and additional funding. We are requesting your support for my son so that he may have his new friend go with him into public places and be by his side to help him with his disability and be there to help him feel secure and in control of his life, to help him be whoever he wants to be.


I’d like to thank everyone in advance for your support for joining and building a safer environment for my son.

Update:
We have started the process of purchasing Logan's PTSD/ Autism Service dog, and we found a great dog through Bark to Basics. Her name is Riley, and she is a black lab with a kind spirit. As soon we took Logan over to do a meet and greet, we saw an instant bond between them. Logan was so overwhelmed by the meeting that he went into an anxiety-related episode. Riley immediately went up to him and lay on his legs to clam him down from the excitement of meeting her. After Logan calmed down, she stayed by his side for the remainder of the time we were there. At that moment, we knew she is the perfect fit for Logan. Since then, we have been in regular contact with Riley and her trainer doing various meet and greets, getting bi-monthly updates on her training to become Logan's perfect service dog.

                             Here are a few task's Riley will be specifically trained to do for our little Logan.

*Deep Pressure therapy

            -When Logan is feeling overwhelmed with his emotions ,surrounding and feeling overly stimulated. Riley is trained to provide deep pressure onto his chest. By does this Logan will start to feel a calming feeling, and begin to refocus on what he was doing

*interrupting a night terrors/turning on light

              -Sometimes Logan will get night terrors and with the room being dark he goes in a sense of panic, he will feel overwhelmed and start screaming for help and then start hitting himself until help comes. He says “it feel like he is being buried alive or the feeling of losing his sight. He other sense go into overdrive.” Riley will be trained to turn on the light and start deep pressure therapy and or get help.


*interrupting repetitive and/or injurious behaviors

               -Riley is trained to stop Logan's repetitive behaviors by nudging his hands. so when he gets frustrated with people or games or school she is trained to notice these behaviors and stop them by nudging her nose to his hands and distract him





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Donations 

  • Ramon Rodriguez
    • $135 
    • 3 yrs
  • W.J. Chafee
    • $100 
    • 3 yrs
  • Darrill Andries
    • $75 
    • 3 yrs
  • Christopher Medina
    • $50 
    • 3 yrs
  • Carla Lancaster
    • $500 
    • 4 yrs
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Organizer

ALFORD KATHERINE
Organizer
Buckeye, AZ

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