Service dog

My fiance and I were talking tonight about looking into getting a service dog for our son who has autism. He tends to have meltdowns/anxiety when in public places. Going to a restaurant, a museum, the doctors office, anywhere besides walmart is a horror show. I've done a few quick Google searches and saw that a service dog could help calm and keep him calm and ease his anxiety in social situations like this. I also saw that a trained service dog could be upwards of 10,000 dollars.

Has anyone here ever had a service dog and could give me some information on it such as the process of it, how much your service animal cost?

174 views • 1 upvote • 8 comments

COMMENT (8)

Sa

Posted at
I have an autistic son also and we’re trying to save / fundraiser to get him a service dog to help with anxiety as you probably already know children do and can have services dogs since they have services dog specially trained for autistic children. Good luck! :) from one autism mom to another.

Em

Posted at
I have a SDIT (service dog in training) for PTSD/ANXIETY and I owner train her. You can owner train your dog and dont have to spend a bunch on getting someone to train then or help you but it is an option is doing it alone is not an option. For example of one of her tasks when I start getting anxious I will start shaking my leg so she will tap me with her paw so I will realize and leave the situation and/or have her do LPT. There is also no registration for a service dog (just in case you didnt know). I would bring it up with your doctor or therapist (if you have one) because they can help get you information. It does take a long time to get a fully trained service dog but its worth it. Mine has helped me so much and I wish I had her earlier so I could have stayed in school my senior year. If you have any questions you can ask me. Also make sure to go to ADA.gov it will tell you the laws of service dogs and everything you need too know. I did years of research before I got mine. (At least 3) so I will answer any question I can to help.

C

Posted at
My dad had one for other reasons . You have to have true medical clearances /paperwork etc. it takes a while to get set up with group that trains them. Then there is training with your son. It costed 15,000 dollars

ad

Posted at
I have not. However, I have never seen a child with a service dog. I work with children and adults with disabilities and I do think that children are very aggressive early on since they do not know coping mechanisms or skills. They can abuse their service dog. Not saying your child would. Just take certain things into consideration. Would he benefit? Or would be benefit because he hits it/spits on it? Again, not assuming that your child has behavioral issues but most people I’ve worked with, that have intellectual and or developmental disabilities have behavioral issues almost always.

ad

ad • Feb 9, 2020
Yes, I agree

Ay

Aylin • Feb 9, 2020
I used to babysit a baby with autism, he was 6 years old and he has behavioral issues. He would be happy, lovely and kind one day and the next day he would hit his face and throw stuff everywhere. His parent has a pet a ferret and he would not know how to play with the ferret. Anyways not all kids are the same. I have a dog and I always make sure that kids don’t touch her tail of butt because dogs even train ones are unpredictable. Even kids without autism don’t know how to treat pets so it depends also on parenting. Wish you the best

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ad • Feb 9, 2020
Actually many autistic people do have behavioral issues. And I did mention that I haven’t seen any children with service animals. I’ve been a DSP for almost 5 years and have yet to see that. I actually have only seen one person with a disability intellectual and developmental wise with a service dog. The dog actually bothered most of their peers. The people I have worked with have behavioral issues, so obviously I am unaware of the ones without