ASDs and Assistance Dogs

[amber32002]

I thought I'd share a bit of what's going on with Assistance Dogs for those with an ASD. Various charities in the UK are starting to offer Assistance Dogs to help children with ASDs, mostly those aged 3-10. Dogs for the Disabled, for example. Another charity yesterday said they had enough enquiries to fill the next two years of dog training and supply, so there's clearly huge need out there at the moment.

But there isn't a single charity at the moment who are offering the same service for adults.

I have dogs. I also have Asperger syndrome. Intriguingly, one of our dogs has trained herself to support me. No, really! Bless her, she knows my likely routine in the mornings and if I forget some part of it, she'll sit next to me and paw me until I remember what it is. She's just done it because I'd not noticed I'd gone five minutes over the time I normally wake up son . She knows when a pan of water has started to boil, she tells me when the mobile phone has a text, she gets me if someone else in the family is stuck with something they need etc etc...and no-one's taught her to do any of it. Dogs really can be very remarkable 'people'.

And she's always a topic of conversation if I'm out and about, which is great when my social skills are not that brilliant, and has given me a lot of confidence to go places and get more exercise.

It would be great if one of the charities were to do some sort of 'accreditation and training/health/temperament-check' scheme so that adults with an ASD who have dogs could take them to places as a proper Assistance Dog. I'm trying to suggest it to a few of them.

oh this is interesting. I've written a bit about it here. The book is good.

DS1 loved wannabe's guide dog when he met him a few weeks ago (which surprised me as he's funny about fur usually).

I emailed dogs for the disabled but didn't hear back and ds1 is rapidly approaching the 'maximum' age so I doubt he has any chance which is a shame as being able to take a dog shopping etc would really help I think. And we can't do that unless the dog is an assistance dog.

I've been reading about these. I think they are a great idea. We have a dog, and my DS with HFA uses her all the time for comfort - very often when he is shutting down and doesn't want our input. The dog is a real motivator too. However the poor dog 'tolerates' DS, rather than actively assists him, as we had her pre-children and her bonding is to us, and not the kids.

He only has such a good bedtime routine because the dog lies with him on his bed and 'looks after him' as he says.

The dog charities are notoriously uncooperative. I think it has something to do with the fact that they do things one way and never shall one deviate from the norm. And I hate to say this but there is a certain air of being just a bit patronising - you are the disabled person, we are the trainer of the dog, and of course you couldn't possibly be expected to make decisions on your own and without our guidance. . Guide dogs for instance will pay for a guide dog's food, they used to just give a feeding allowance but they've now changed their policy and now they have an account with a supplier, and your dog's food requirements are registered with that supplier so you can't change your dog's food of your own accord - it has to be agreed by Guide dogs and if they don't agree then you can't change the food. So I have opted not to receive a feeding allowance and therefore I can feed my dog what the hell I want thank you very much. . Oh and don't get me started on the guide dog trainer who decided that Tizzy's claws needed clipping and ended up practically mutilating one of them to the point it bled so much we had to take him to the vet. Oh yes they know it all. . But I digress...

I remember when me and jimjams first started talking about this I was seriously considering setting up my own charity to train dogs for autistic children. But after having a discussion with the trainer who was training my own guide dog at the time, (one of the normal ones ) he pointed out the downsides of doing this, i.e. what would I do with the dogs that we were unable to place being the biggest one. So he put me in touch with Guide dogs' rehoming officer to see if we could get a reject guide dog with a view to training it, and she informed me that dfd were in the process of doing similar training so at the time it was left there.

But it seems that Dfd have quite specific criteria re who can/can't receive a dog, which of course rules out a whole section of the population.

But actually, there's nothing stopping you from training your own dog, and either getting advice from the professionals wrt having the dog registered as an assistance dog, or even setting up another charity for assistance dogs in order to get around the registration by dfd or similar. I know of two guide dog owners who are in the process of training their own dogs and will simply get advice from GDBA to ensure the training is accurate and the dog is working safely, so I don't see any reason why this couldn't happen re assistance dogs for people (and it doesn't have to be limited to children imo) with autism or other disabilities.

The only issue of course re having a charity is dogs. Where would you get them from; would you use rescue or your own breeding stock for instance? Hearing dogs and dfd use a mixture I think. I know hearing dogs use a lot of rescues, and dfd do take a lot of guide dogs' rejects (I'm hesitant to use the word rejects really because they often just don't make the grade as guide dogs for things which would be major for a guide dog owner but minor for anyone else iyswim). Guide dogs breed their own puppies but that involves having to have people registered as puppywalkers and essentially a whole network of people holding breeding stock (they have the breeding kennels at tolgate in warwickshire, so major preeding premises). Breeding own dogs might work if there was a huge amount of demand though.

Sorry this post is ve long and rambling isn't it.

In short - I don't see why dogs can't be trained for adults and children alike with asd, and I don't see why you should have to rely on an existing charity to do it.

wannabe the way I read it the dog can only be registered as an assistance dog if trained via one of the organisations.

Interesting thought about setting up another organisation. I wonder what their reasoning for the age limit is?

I think the insurance is the tricky thing, though. If people are training their own dog, fair enough, but if you were to take that dog into a supermarket, the supermarket would have every right to say 'no' unless it was registered as a proper Assistance Dog with recognised training and full insurance/healthcare proof etc. And a dog that can't be taken to the most stressful places isn't a lot more use than an average dog you get from the local rescue centre.

I can see that insurers would be very, very strict about what happened re the dogs and the insurance costs for the charity concerned might be very high indeed. I can well believe that it takes about £10k to find, train and place the dogs, plus running the charity itself. I understand that most funders require top quality research, and the research isn't good enough yet because numbers are quite small so far. No research at all into adults and dogs, as far as I know.

ds1 hates dogs. He is attatched to a cat. In the early years when he didn't communicate he would talk through the cat. I get a bit worried now she is getting old. She follows him everywhere and sleeps on his pillow.

i read about this a few weeks ago i think itsa greaat idea

Amber yes you are right the biggest issue is the insurance, which is why the dog needs to be registered with one of the organizations. However you can perfectly legitimately train a dog yourself and approach the organization at the end of your training to assess the dog and take it on to its books. I know of one person who is currently doing this and I spoke to a guide dog trainer aquaintance to confirm it and she said that it's actually not that uncommon.

I'm not sure how the costs for training are broken down, although iirc the £10000 covers the life of the dog, so that would be for training (presumably trainer salaries are factored into this), food costs, (approx 78p per day for the life of the dog), vet bills (vaccinations/boosters/worming/flea treatment and any ad hoc costs for illnesses which depending on the dog's health can vary), aftercare visits to ensure the dog is working safely (so again probably half a day of trainer salary once a year) plus fuel costs for trainers/trainees to be driven around during the course of the training of the dog, equipment for the dog (collars/leads/harness/brush/comb/reflective strips to go on lead/harness). I'm sure I'll think of more.

Some of these costs can be reduced by:

Not paying for food/vet costs, (guide dogs in the UK are the only organization in the world who currently cover food/vet bills), or make especially vet costs means tested so you could ensure the health of the dogs. But those who could afford to would be required to take out their own insurance for their dogs.

Or alternatively you could fundraise/rely on sponsorship. Sponsors now make up a huge part of guide dogs' funding, and people like to sponsor a dog because it's got the cute factor.

just to add, my knowledge is based on guide dogs, but am sure similar apply to dfd and other organizations.

DFD did say that they don't register other trained dogs but a different organisation (in sheffield- can't remember the name ) would. But they now seem to run their own programme so not sure they do....

I think you also need to go to Sheffield for the training which is pretty difficult with a severely autistic child

nooo going to sheffield seems like a ve bad idea - taking a severely ausistic child out of their normal routine and throwing a dog into the balance sounds very unsettling to me.

Ideally training should happen at home - dog be brough into the home for a settling in period (number of days to a couple of weeks depending on the child), and then the training should happen in the child's familliar environments.

IMO obviously.

oh I've got that wrong the parents attend a 5 day training course then the child trains at home. But tbh for many families (including us) finding 5 days babysitting for a severely autistic child is impossible.

Still nothing re adults, though . If they wanted me to go on a five day training course when I've been a dog owner almost all my life, I'd be a bit , to say the least...

When we looked at getting our dog trained as an epilepsy awareness dog, DFD told us that they would train our own dog for anything else (but not fits as the dog has to have never seen a fit before training). It might be worth contacting them again.

I've emailed supportdogs and asked why the 10 year limit. they said because children between 3 and 10 are more flexible and able to adapt their routine.

Which rather sounds as if they've been reading the idiots guide to autism as that is utter bollocks ime. The ability to cope with changes to routine is entirely individual! Ds1 has never had the slightest problem- I know children half his age who struggle!

Dear All

I am little late joining this discussion. I discovered it by google when looking for information about assistance dog for my severley autistic son. The few cahrities in the UK are unable to meet demand and are only concemtrating their effort to their local area, which means we in hampshire are unlikely to get help in the near future. We recently returned from a holiday in Ireland where twice on consequitive days we met families who had a special needs dog. they seem to be be much better organised there and we did consider actually moving there to apply.

Howver this was not practicable, nor is waiting for the UK charities to help. Therefore i would like to find a suitable trainer who would be willing to work with me to select and train a dog for my boy. If there is anyone that can help i would be grateful. we live in North Hampshire near the Surry and Berkshire border. Please email me direct on [email protected]

many thanks