TJ was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 3 years old. His difficulty communicating his needs made his behavior difficult to deal with for his mom, his grandparents, his teachers and therapists. TJ often acted out by hitting himself, climbing onto dangerous platforms, having tantrums and running away in crowded public places, or often, directly into hazardous situations, to include middle of the night escapades. Therefore, in 2022, TJ’s mom, Mikaela, started researching service dogs that would alert her to TJ’s elopement episodes prior to them occurring, as well as a service dog that could track TJ if he ran away and, most importantly, a four legged pal to calm him during his distressful episodes.
The application process for Autism service dogs is grueling and included submissions of therapist reports, police reports from elopement episodes, educator and physician statements along with videos of TJ’s breakdowns and behavior episodes. TJ had been on a waitlist for a service dog for 18 months when he was finally accepted by the team at Highland Service Dogs out of North Carolina. This organization has the ability to not only train a dog to ease TJ’s behavior by using behavior calming interventions, but will also be trained in the police academy K-9 program for tracking. Essentially, the service dog will be trained to follow TJ’s scent for up to a mile in the unfortunate case he runs into danger.
Mikaela and TJ moved to Ft Collins, Colorado in June 2023 to get TJ better Autism services and more community support for his mother, who is currently attending Law School after an 18 year career as a nurse. TJ is currently 5 years old & although he seems to be thriving in school and improving with the help of the amazing Poudre school system, he is also getting more curious and independent in his adventure seeking lifestyle. This still puts him at risk for danger and some of his previous bad habits have been replaced by new bad habits that make some day-to-day activities difficult.
The Highland Autism service dog with the additional K-9 tracking training costs nearly $60,000 in training and resources. Mikaela and TJ are required to raise one third of the cost, which includes the cost of traveling to North Carolina to get matched with a puppy who will then be trained for an additional 9 months specific to TJ as well as the K-9 tracking specialized training. The “puppy” will then be flown to Ft Collins by trainers for an additional week of integration. Any and all help is appreciated to defray these costs. Thank you!
