I am needing to raise $26552 for my little boy to get assistant dog for autism. Which I sure a t of you will be saying wow that I a lot of money just for a dog and u know what you are right but if you take the time to read this you might be a bit of a idea of how much this dog can do to improve my little boys life everyday and also our family Now this is going to be a bit of a long story but please read it trough so you can understand how much this means to me, my son and our family. I am going to start with the benefits the dog will provide and then I will tell you what your puppy (due to be born any day now) will be trained in and then I am going to tell you about Ryan and try and give you an incite to what our life is like. Not only that we are in a special place because our puppy is only just about to be born I will be sharing the story with you all from the very start so you will get to hear about all the training that goes into an assistance dog, you will get to watch the bonding sessions with our puppy and Ryan all the way till the day he or she comes home. An assistance dog is trained for the needs of each person and just like a guide dog will go everywhere with us, they even wear one of those cute little blue jackets. First and foremost, they are considered “service” dogs. the mission of these animals is to increase the safety of the person with autism. For example, such a dog may lower the likelihood of the person bolting or crossing a busy street, because it is physically connected to the person with autism. The dogs are trained to follow commands from parents, stop at doorways, and resist the child moving away by using its weight to slow or stop the child The dogs provide a constant partner and companion that the child can bond with. In most cases, the dog sleeps with the child, allowing for less panic attacks from the child and resulting in a more restful nights’ sleep. When working in public, most children are tethered to the dog, acting as an anchor for a child who may bolt or run away when over-stimulated. The dogs are trained to become a canine version of a weighted sensory blanket to help the child when the inevitable meltdown occurs. Some nonverbal clients have started to speak to the dog or tell others about their dog. They also help the child with social activities There are many benefits - these are just a few. Each Custom Canine is specifically trained to enhance the unique needs of the child and household in which they are placed. Some of the things our puppy will be trained with are listed below, the other thing you need to understand after our puppy comes home his or her training wont stop as Ryan gets older his needs will change and so the dog will be trained in those areas to help assist Ryan. Targeted skill – Responding to meltdown Targeted Skill – Deep Pressure Therapy Targeted Skill – distracting games and rough play Targeted Skills – block and cover, for road crossings and approach of people in public places Targeted Skill – Alert to leaving an area alone Targeted Skill – locating individual, tracking Targeted Skills – attending therapies and hospital/Dr. visits So, those are just some of the things our puppy will be trained in. And now the most important part an incite to Ryan and a bit about my little man. A lot of you will look at my little man Ryan and say wow really, he looks like any other little boy. And he does look like any other little boy, you see like most things we all have in our minds how something should look or how it is and I am sure a lot of you when you think of Autism (ASD) you think of a child that doesn’t walk or talk and sits in a corner rock or flapping their arms and this is the case for some children with ASD or on the spectrum. But like most things there are different variants and everyone will sit on the spectrum at a different level. For children on the spectrum they all share social and communication delays as well as restricted and repetitive interests the severity of these problems and the impact on a person life can very considerably. Some children will avoid eye contact while others will smile and hug. Some will have learning difficulties, others will top their class. Some will never speak, where others will display impressive vocabularies, some will flap their hands and rock other will blend without any sign of their condition. What all these children do have in common however is a different way of thinking- a way of thinking which can make the everyday task of socializing and communication very very difficult. Now for Ryan he is classed as high function he can walk and talk but his fine motor skills are behind more like that of a 3 year not a 6-year-old, give him math’s or building and he’s is a wiz but can’t read or write. He doesn’t understand social situations and has no empathy at all and his sensory are all over the place. For example, if Ryan gets the smallest of cuts or bumps it is the end of the world but he will haply jump of the side of our water slide like its nothing, to give u an idea of height I am 5.4 and its taller then me. Another thing with Ryan is he hates change or anything new and doesn’t cope so when he need to start school this year it was not a lot of fun for me, we get to the school and out of the car and Ryan and I played cat and mouse for about 10 minutes before I could grab him by this stage I was in tears begging him to please just come and see what school was like and the hardest part for me wasn’t the cat and mouse game it was when I stood there crying begging him to help me he looked straight through me like I wasn’t there. He couldn’t understand why I was so upset. On his second day of school he had a meltdown one of the biggest he has ever had, when I got to the school everyone was out side and his teacher came up to me and said “Bec he is ok but we have had to restrain him so he didn’t hurt himself” I was like oh no what has he done. I walked into his classroom and the easiest way to tell you is it looked like the class room had been ransacked, tables and chairs turned upside down, books all over the floor and here is Ryan sitting on the floor with his principle and she had her arms wrapped around him (not hard or in a bad way) to stop him. I took one look at him and then the room and bust into tears. Ryan looked at me and said “mummy why is you crying” I wanted to scream are u Fxxxing kidding me. It was only days later when I was talking to his teacher and she said when Ryan asked me why I was crying the look on his face she said he had no idea and don’t understand what he had done and why it would upset me. You Ryan is such a sweet little boy but life isn’t easy for Ryan what he’s see and hears is so different to us, there are days where he will say nothing to me but poo poo head or when he’s is playing cars they all must be lined up in a row before you can play. Ask him about dinosaurs and he can tell you things that you would be like where did you learn that or how did he know that. But playing with friends is hard well he doesn’t really have any as he doesn’t know when something is game or when people have had enough as he can’t read our face like most people do to know if your angry or sad. It all about Ryan a lot say tunnel vision he only sees his way and that is that. Then there is going to the shops with Ryan or out in general with Ryan is just hell on wheels and I try and not go out with him, for most of you that saw us at the supermarket you would think he was just a naughty little boy that I couldn’t control. He normally runs away or runs up and down all the isle saying things like poo poo head or he runs away or he hides but you see for him its to much going on and this sends his brain and sensory into overload and all the noise, colour and people keep rushing and he doesn’t know how to process this. For you to understand what this may be like I want you to close your eyes and remember the first time you walk into a night club the people the loud music all the lights glass breaking and it takes you a few minutes to adjust and your all good and go have a drink or a dance well for Ryan that first few minutes doesn’t stop it keeps going getting worse and worse the longer he is there and he doesn’t know how to regulate it and turn it off. These are just some of the things that Ryan struggles with in everyday life, I could go on to tell you about feeding him and all I will say is he eats very little and it must be white except for Icey poles give him a white one of those and he will look at you like your silly. Now Ryan also has 2 sisters Emma 7 and Grace 2 and they go through a lot with him, he hits them and sometimes with his oldest Emma she wants some here time and he just doesn’t understand give her some space and just keeps asking her to play. So, this assistance dog will not only help Ryan with his safety (and yes, he has run out onto the road in main traffic) social skills and help with his meltdowns but help us as a family. We could go out as a family and know Ryan is safe and if he has a meltdown an extra pair of paws I guess would be the right words. So please help me raise funds for Ryan and help with awareness for autism and assistance dogs. Any help big or small would be so much help and mean more then you will ever know. Please share my page to anyone you think can help and keep your eye on this page as I will add my blog and Facebook page as soon as I have set it all up so you can watch our magical story come to life.