Ollie and AJ

AJ is a vibrant and amazing boy in need of a superhero!

An autism diagnosis in late 2018 began a journey to provide amazing therapy and the need for a service dog. Ollie is a 9-month old labradoodle with aspirations of helping AJ by becoming a service dog specializing in AJ's specific needs. 

Autism service dogs act as constant companions to children with autism to help them improve social interactions and relationships, enhance safety, expand verbal and nonverbal communication, teach life skills, increase interest in activities and decrease stress within the family.  Other behaviors service dogs can perform for children with autism include interrupting or alerting to early signs of maladaptive or repetitive behavior and other responses to triggers. 

Ollie has already helped AJ by providing grounding or sensory input to help diffuse meltdowns and sleeps with him to offer support to help him sleep through the night.  

When we began looking into a service dog for AJ we found multiple sites that require lengthy applications and long wait times (2+years).  In researching all the benefits a service dog can provide, we decided to investigate options for owner training.  We decided that this route would save both time and money and we acquired Ollie through one of our Speech Therapists in March of 2020.  We immediately began working with a local trainer who specialized in training dogs for children with Autism.  Due to COVID 19 however, she is unable to work with us due to her own high risk situation.  Fortunately, we have found additional trainers in our area but the cost is prohibitive.  We would like to begin training as soon as possible so we are asking friends to be a part of this hero team.