What is an Autism Service Dog?
An Autism Service or Assistance Dog is a dog that is trained specific tasks to assist  someone suffering from autism spectrum disorders, or similar sensory processing disorder. These dogs learn tasks to help adults and children alike to function as normally as possible or assist family members of these individuals in everyday life.

What can an Autism Service Dog do for me or my family member?
Depending on the severity and level of function can depend on the tasks and ways that the dog can help. Most people, both children and adults with Autism have a certain level of difficulty communicating with the general public and building relationships. The dogs help create a "Social Bridge" as a conversation starter, build confidence, increase verbal communication skills, and provide a constant companion to their handler. Autism Assistance Dogs are often trained to do tasks to assist in every day life such as: breaking stimming behavior, picking up dropped items, stability, and much much more!

​Autism Service Dogs and Children
Anyone who has cared for a child or teen with autism, knows what a struggle basic, daily tasks can be. Just the sheer presence of the dogs in a home have calming effect on the children, but what they are trained to do can be life changing! ​Below we have listed some of the most common difficulties autistic children face, and how our service dogs can help!

• Bolting/Wandering

​Most children with Autism have very little concept of safety or self preservation. Without 100% supervision they will often wander, or when faced with a stressful or over stimulating situation they may bolt. Our dogs can be trained to do several tasks to prevent this from happening. These tasks include tethering or grounding, this means to attach the dog to a child to give the child a sense of security, as well as the parent or caregiver being able to handle or put the dog into a "Stay" to prevent wandering in stores, restaurants, schools, or other public places. Is your biggest fear your child getting away from someone at school, a park, bolting out of the house? We can train our dogs using scent discrimination to find your child or loved one.

• Self Stimulatory/Destructive Behaviors​​

​When caring for someone with ASD, it is very frustrating to watch your loved one try to manage in stressful situations. While it is not entirely clear, it is believed that stimming behaviors are used as a way of "self regulation" during overwhelming situations. Stimming refers to repetitive and sometimes destructive behaviors, these behaviors include but are not limited to: Hand Flapping, Spinning, Repetitive Sounds or Words, Rocking, Picking at Skin or Clothing, and Tearing Paper.  
The dogs can be trained to break the stimming by using "Tactile Stimulation", this means using their nose or paws to touch or poke to interrupt the behaviors and bring the attention onto themselves. By breaking the behavior and bringing the attention back onto the dog, they have a calming effect on the child and help reduce the need to stim.
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• Meltdowns

​Meltdowns are an inevitable part of dealing with  someone that is on the spectrum, generally days are spent trying to avoid stimulus or scenarios that are known to elicit meltdowns. Not only are meltdowns dreaded and embarrassing, but they leave the caregiver feeling helpless and frustrated on how to deal with the situation. Our dogs are trained to provide "Deep Pressure Therapy"
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