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Please Help me Train my Service Dog!

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25 years ago, a seemingly minor car accident destroyed a life I had invested a lot of time, energy and money into making for myself. For reasons that still aren't clear, the trauma from the accident set off a pretty catastrophic medical crisis. Within the next two years, I had to give up a career I loved and all the sports and hobbies that made my life complete. I moved to the woods in New Hampshire and I have spent the time since trying to a legitimate diagnosis of my many and various conditions and, hopefully, treatment. In spite of a great deal of time spent with a great many doctors and draconian testing, the consensus was something was very wrong, but nobody knew what. My life has become smaller and smaller as my disability worsened.

For the last several years, I have been losing the use of my arms and legs. My legs are growing weaker, severely limiting me, and I am often unsteady and prone to falling. This has been devastating for me. I love alone and have always been able to manage for myself, even on the bad days, but this is getting harder and much more painful. So I began looking for a Mobility Assistance dog who will help me get around, help me get up when I fall, and perform other tasks which I have trouble with. These dogs do an amazing job, but they are both scarce and very expensive. It takes about two years to train a service dog, so there is a reason the cost is so high. It has been a long search with some major bumps in the road, but I have finally found a very experienced trainer close enough for me to work with several times a week in what will be a two year course of training. My wonderful dog Bowie, who was socialized since he was 8 weeks old to be a service dog, will go through the training with me and then take his place at my side as my Mobility Assistance dog. It's going to be a long process with a serious commitment of my time and energy, and I'm going to make it my top priority, because when Bowie is trained I will get back my ability to travel safely in the world.

I need a substantial sum of money for the training, equipment and vetting, and I am hoping to raise as much as possible through crowd funding. The training costs $8,000, which is quite reasonable considering it's a two year program. I have added on $2,000 for equipment - the harness for a Mobility Assistance dog is expensive - and for an extensive veterinary exam including specialized x-rays of Bowie's leg joints, to ensure I don't put all this time and money into a dog who won't be able to do the job comfortably. If anything turns up in the xrays, Bowie will stay here as a much loved pet and those funds will go towards acquiring a dog who is physically capable of doing the work.

I have lived on disability for the last 25 years, and have not been able to work at all, so paying for this myself, even if I pay over time, will be a tremendous hardship. I am hoping that my online community will pull together to help me out with this. I know times are really hard right now, so if you can only give a little, that's fine. If you can't give anything, that's fine too - maybe just send out some positive karma for me. What everyone can do to help is to share this anywhere or with anyone you can think of. If you have any questions, please let me know - I will try to check on the comment section every day.

Thank you for reading this, and helping any way you can. I am excited to get this started and, hopefully, with your help, I can do that soon.
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Organizer

Leslie Morrison
Organizer
Bristol, NH

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