Autism Serivce dogs

[ASDogGeek]

Hello I am a 24 year old female with high functioning autism. My German Shepherd Nimrodel is my autism service dog. She is eight years old and will be retiring in two years and in 32 weeks an 4 days we will have a new puppy coming and he will start his training to be my next service dog. We have named him Pippin. I wanted to tell you all a bit about autism service dogs

********************AUTISM SERVICES DOGS MUST BE TRAINED TASKS TO HELP MITIGATE THE DISABILITY OTHERWISE IT IS NOT A SERVICE DOG BUT AN EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMAL********************************************

Autism service dogs are dogs that are specially trained to help individuals living on the autism spectrum. Individuals may be severely to mildly impaired by autism but no matter where they fall on the spectrum these dogs are trained to help them and provide them with better quality of life.

Autism service dogs are a lot like a cross between a seeing eye and hearing dogs. they have tasks similar to them

Autism service dogs have been proven to have many benefits for those living with autism. They been shown and proven to help calm the individual that they are paired with and decrease the amount of meltdowns. When an individual has a meltdown the dog will help them through it. They also help provide a sense of security as well as increased safety Increase in safety allows the individual to have more independence.
In many cases individuals have become more social after receiving and working with their dogs, it is also still unknown as to why and how these dogs help improve and individuals ability to concentrate but this has been shown to be a benefit as well.

Some Autism Service dog tasks

Symptom/ challenge Task trained

Impulsive running: Dog retrieves individual

PICA: Interrupts behavior

Self harming behavior: Will interrupt behavior

Night Awakenings: Alert parents by barking or climb into bed with individual

Non-verbal: offer behavior when person tries to command

Social Isolation: Focus shifts to dog.

Fire alarms: Dog alerts the individual and gets them out

meltdowns: Dog climbs in lap to calm individual

Streets: Dog will stop individual from walking right out

Sneaking out: Alerts parents by barking

Nightmares: Dog will crawl into bed to calm individual

Wandering/getting lost: Track and find individual/ offer protection

dropped item/ forgetfulness: refuses to move till the item is picked up or will retrieve the item

Separated from caregiver /friend or family in stores or crowds: seeks out family/friend or care giver.

Over whelmed or over stimulate: dog will lead individual to exit or a quiet area

Other tasks may also be trained as well especial if there are multiple conditions. i.e. Seizure alert.

Autism service dogs are a medical expense


I know Nimrodel has changed my life. Are there any other autism service dog teams out there?

[cassadee7]

This is wonderful! I have a friend with an autistic child who is 7 years old. She has mentioned hearing about service dogs and wanting to have one for her child. We live in WA state. Can you direct me to an appropriate resource for her to find a service dog? It would help her soooo much. He runs away, self harms sometimes, has meltdowns and tries to climb/jump off things and I would love to see this mom and child get info on a dog who could assist them.

[jocoyn]

There is a group in Greenville SC that trains and places Autism service dogs.

We actually have a fellow (trainer in that group) with one of the rejects (too much drive) getting involved with our SAR team. I believe Julia Priest helped them set up their breeding program.

They only place locally - takes awhile to train and demand higher than availability.

[ILGHAUS]

It is very hard to find any group or organization that will train an autism service dog for an adult. Most only train for children. The few that are out there and are reputable have people who have looked for years.

Please do your research on any trainer or organization. Just doing a google search and finding a source based on how they read on the Internet or from a fancy website may not lead to satisfactory results.

Go over your application and fees and any future contracts very carefully. Have a list of questions prepared before you even start questioning a potential trainer.

[ASDogGeek]

Originally Posted by cassadee7

This is wonderful! I have a friend with an autistic child who is 7 years old. She has mentioned hearing about service dogs and wanting to have one for her child. We live in WA state. Can you direct me to an appropriate resource for her to find a service dog? It would help her soooo much. He runs away, self harms sometimes, has meltdowns and tries to climb/jump off things and I would love to see this mom and child get info on a dog who could assist them.

One of my favoret organizations is
Autism Service Dogs

but the basic criterea you want in finding an autism service dog organization is

trains for all ages

trains tasks (they MUST train task) make sure they train actual tasks! Also remeber autism service dogs are a tax deduction because they are a medical expence)

DON"T pay over 10,000!

[ASDogGeek]

Originally Posted by ILGHAUS

It is very hard to find any group or organization that will train an autism service dog for an adult. Most only train for children. The few that are out there and are reputable have people who have looked for years.

Please do your research on any trainer or organization. Just doing a google search and finding a source based on how they read on the Internet or from a fancy website may not lead to satisfactory results.

Go over your application and fees and any future contracts very carefully. Have a list of questions prepared before you even start questioning a potential trainer.

EXCELLENT and THANK YOU! I suggested wilder wood because I was going to apply to them myself if I wasn't going to be able to get a puppy to train to be my service dog and I am paling on going to them to help withthe training. Wilderwood does train them for adults. I am working hard to bring reform to this as so many places don't tain them for dults and it doesn't make sence

[idahospud49]

This is great! My younger brother has aspergers, well actually all of my siblings on one side are on the spectrum, but his is the most severe. While he does not have a trained dog, he has his Sammy dog. Sammy is a little bichon frise who Tim will drag around. I have never seen such a sweet dog put up with so much. Timmy can put him in a crate in the middle of the yard and tell him to stay, and he will not move until Timmy lets him out or someone comes along and tells him to get out. He was never formerly trained.
I would love to find out more about this. The school I work at, which is run and operated by my dad and step-mom has an extremely high amount of kids on the spectrum. I am going to have to look more into this. I am personally going into equine therapy, and would love to add in some service dogs too.

[cassadee7]

Great, I will pass this information along! Would love to see a trained dog at work with this child in my neighborhood.

[Lin]

I'm a service dog user, and have Aspergers but my dog is a mobility assistance dog.

[DTS]

just thought i would share. this was in my local newspaper today:

First guide dog in local schools aids autistic boy at Marion Oaks Elementary | Ocala.com