Where can we find dogs for autistic kids in washington

Question

please dont be jerks about it

Answer 1

I just "met" (online) someone who recently got a service dog for her son who has autism.  She's given me permission to share her story.  

At the end of her story is a link to learn more about service dogs for children with autism.  Good luck!!!  

We live in the Chicago suburbs although we lucked into the preschool my 5yo is going to, it just happened to be part of a special education co-op in our area.  I have to admit, though, that we definitely have access to more services by living this close to Chicago.  I have found, however, that since all the different school districts have thier own way of doing things then you could go from being in a fantastic school district to a horrible school district by crossing the street.  Frustrates the heck out of me.  

We do have an Autism Service dog.  Her name is Gemini (Gemmie) and she has been with our family for a little over a year.  She does tracking which we need since my 5yo is such a flight risk, we have bars on windows (fire department approved) and key locks on all our outside doors but he has still found ways to get out of the house and we were having to call the police to find him.  We decided we needed a plan B in case he did get out so Gemini will track his scent.  We had a situation a few weeks ago where he was in the backyard and my hubby came in for a phone call, he just disappeared, we had no idea which gate he went out of.  I got on the phone and called the police while hubby grabbed Gemmie and started tracking, before I could even finish my phone call with the police Gemini led my hubby right to my son.  

Gemini also tethers to my son.  My son wears a special harness with a d ring and Gemini has a harness with a D ring also.  We use a nylon tether between the two of them so if we are out in public and my son decides to bolt he can only go as far as the tether.  Gemini is trained to lay down and resist him if he is pulling against her and since she is about 80lbs and my son is 50 Gemini wins, lol.

Gemini will do deep pressure where she will lay her head or even her whole body across my son if he's needing deep pressure.  She does behavior disruption where she will nuzzle him with her nose or pat at him with her paw if he starts stimming or chewing on his shirt collar, it's just enough to distract him and kinda wake him up a bit.  

She has been a huge help to us.  It can be more complicated to go places as it's kinda like having another kid with you and you have to always have a handler with the child and the dog but the benefits far outweigh any inconvenient.  Because she is fully certified we can take her anywhere, lol, and we do.  We have had no problems although it was a bit difficult in the Children's Museum as many moms were upset there was a dog by their children.  

We went with an organization called 4 paws for ability. They are outside of Xenia Ohio and are wonderful.  We had to fundraise $12,000 for Gemini but please please please don't let that intimidate you.  We did it in about a month and it was amazing.  Most people only need about 3months to do the fundraising and no one who is actively fundraising takes more than 9mo.  There is a messagboard for people who work with 4paws so there are tons of people to give you ideas and encouragement.  If you want you can check them out at http://www.4pawsforability.org