One fact about Rayne is she is terrified of new animals, the smaller the dog the worse it is. She’s slowly gotten better over time but she still climbs up me if we see one at the pet store. She will verbally say “no” if they sniff her little feet as I hold her. So imagine our surprise when we got a second dog with the idea of training him to help with her, and she instantly was drawn to him.
Rayne’s biggest issue at night now is we think she gets lonely alone in her room. We also have always wanted to train a dog to help when she’s having meltdowns and someone to tether her to when we are out at events. There are so many ways I’ve seen dogs help children with autism. With my allergies though, it had to be a goldendoodle, which are the only dogs we’ve found that don’t set my allergies off.
So it was to our delight we found a 1-year-old goldendoodle that needed a home. He’s still very much a puppy and unfortunately was stuck in a kennel outside and didn’t receive much, if any, attention. It means we’ve got some work ahead of us but he’s already besties with Odin and appears to be a perfect match for Rayne.
A true service dog is OUTRAGIOUSLY expensive, and we don’t exactly have the $15-$25k sitting around for one. Luckily, we’ve found online programs to train him ourselves and he’s already a sweet baby with Rayne.
What is our long-term goal then?
To train him to sleep with Rayne (and not chew up her stuffies). To be able to have him trained to stay by our side while tethered to Rayne so she cannot bolt off at busy events. He is going to be able to comfort her when she’s in a meltdown and prevent her from smashing her head on the ground.
We know it’s going to take a lot of work but we are ready for the challenge!
Wish us luck!
M
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