Autism Service Dogs

Autism is something that's been making the news a lot recently and today's National Dog Day hero is Yori, an Autism Service Dog.  Watch his video:

Yori was trained through Canine Companions for Independence which gives dogs to people with disabilities at no cost.  I have to say, that really makes me think highly of this group!  The only problem with that is CCI potentially has to turn people away because they can only accept a limited number of applicants each year.

While I was doing research for today's group I came across another group that also trains Autism Service Dogs, 4 Paws for Ability.  They differ in that, they don't give the dogs "for free" because it really costs $22,000 to raise and train these service dogs.  Instead, 4 Paws for Ability asks the family to help raise $13,000, which allows the families to potentially get the dogs quicker than waiting years to be accepted into another program.  On their website they mention that the fundraising generally takes 3-9 months.  Below is a video from someone working on fundraising for an Autism Service Dog for their son.  The video helps explain how Whit would benefit from the dog.  

I learned a lot from the video about what a parent to an autistic child has to deal with.  Having an Autism Service Dog could definitely give the parents some peace of mind.