Hi folks, Some of you may know that Finn has autism and we are trying to raise money to get him a service dog. The benefits to Finn having a service dog would be unmeasurable. Here are only some of the reasons we know he would benefit from having a trained autism service dog. Finn is a extremely friendly child and greets everyone he meets this includes complete strangers which is a huge worry for
us, as when he gets older he might be friendly to the WRONG type of person, these dogs can sense intent and keep him safe. The dog will be 24/7 with Finn and is allowed access to any public or government building. Finn flaps his arms when he's excited, angry, happy etc it's his way of showing emotion and frustration, this dog is trained to paw at his arm to distract and calm him. His dad counted 60 times one night that he had to get up and put him back in bed. He isn't being bold or upset he just won't stay in bed. We have tried everything from sternly telling him to stay in bed to saying absolutely nothing and just lifting him back into bed. Sometimes you don't even hear him getting up these are the worrying times as what's to stop him sneaking out! This dog will sleep in his room and bark to alert us if he leaves the room. The dog would also alert us if he gets out of the house or is hurt. If Finn did manage to sneak out of the house and got away these dogs are trained to find him. The particular breed of dog we are hoping to have trained is an all black German Shepard, these dogs are the breed used by the FBI and are chosen for the extreme intelligence. A family friend breeds them, he choose this breed for their gentle temperament and has donated a pup from the next litter to be trained, and said "Finn can have the pick of the litter, I'll make sure of it". These dogs do grow to be fairly big which is another reason we have choose this breed as Finn is already big and strong for his age so we need a dog that will be strong enough for him when he gets older as in teenage years. Finn loves people and will often want my friends son to come home with us to play but when they get here he doesn't play with him and gets upset when it's time for Luke to go home. On the other hand our neighbour has a dog who Finn loves to play fetch with, so we hope that playing with a dog would encourage him to play with other children. I hope that might help people understand better what a service dog will mean to Finn and maybe raise a bit of awareness for "Service Dogs Europe" and the wonderful job they are doing. Thank you for taking the time to read this & please share. Kindest regards
Kerrie & Marcus
