I'm looking for some comments on service dogs for autistic children.
This morning, I was talking to one of the computer support guys at a local clinic. One of the things that came up in conversation was that one of his relatives was in the process of getting a service dog for their autistic child.
Supposedly, this dog costs $20,000 and a foundation is picking up half that. The family has been doing fund-raisers for the balance. According to the guy, the child's autisim is probably about a 7 on a scale of 1-10.
The proposed dog is a Lab. The family already have two Labs at home.
We talked a bit about the problem of maintaining any kind of 'service dog' training with multiple dogs in the household.
That $20K number is a pretty big red flag for me. Putting a service dog in a multiple dog home is another.
In any case, I told him I would post this for comments from people who are far more familiar with this than I.
Reg: 08-29-2006
Posts: 2324
Loc: Central Coast, California
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Quote: Charlie Snyder
That $20K number is a pretty big red flag for me. Putting a service dog in a multiple dog home is another.
Well, by way of comparison, Guide Dogs of America charges the individual nothing for a dog. $20K seems like an extraordinary amount of money...What will the dog be doing?
I'd never thought about a service dog in a multiple dog home but I can see how you could run into any number of problems.
That wasn't real clear. It sounded like the dog's purpose was to 'interact' with the child and sometimes pick things up. However, this is all second & third hand.
Perhaps the dog is getting special training on how to behave around people having to live with that condition. It seems that training would quickly become lost when it was put with the other two dogs.
Reg: 08-29-2006
Posts: 2324
Loc: Central Coast, California
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I don't any experience with the workings of foundations but I would think...hope...they do their homework before they start cutting a check, right? They probably wouldn't be dropping $10k on Bob & Barb's Backyard Service Dogs.
If you had the name of the company supplying the dog it would be fairly easy to check out.
I did a little bit of research on autism way-back-when and it's often true that an animal is a calming presence for someone with autism. But the thought of someone taking advantage of a family in this kind of situation...
I believe a service dog for an autistic child has a couple main duties. The dog can have a calming effect on the child as autistic children can be prone to emotional outbursts. The dog is also supposed to increase social interaction between the child and others as autism is so socially debilitating.
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Service Dogs for Autistic Children
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