Most Assistance Dog Programs refuse to work with special needs children, anyone under the age of 18. Those training & placement organizations are solely for adults. Even for organizations willing to work with children, the cost of a professionally trained dog is expensive (can be up to $15,000) and sometimes the waiting list is as much as 7 years. Do investigate all the programs available to you before choosing one. And consider your family's willingness to commit to having an extra lifetime member of the family. Who sheds. And is large. And needs walks and exercise.




One of the programs that works with children is ARFkids, a 301C (charitable) organization specifically created to address the training assistance needs of the families of Special Needs Children. PetCo (http://www.PetCo.com) is their largest corporate supporter.


ARFkids Mission
To help children nationwide....


By providing a Pet Assisted Therapy or Service Dog Candidate Puppy to Special Needs children, ages 8-18, that will be specifically trained by the recipient family, with assistance from ARFkids, to aid in the improvement of the quality of life of the child. This makes obtaining an Assistance or Service dog affordable.
http://www.ARFkids.org

DO NOTE that with ARFkids.org THE TRAINING IS DONE BY THE FAMILY with this type of program, so you, too, will be trained by trained volunteers and you will have the support and advice of an online group. This is what makes the program affordable.




Details of the ARFkids.org Pet Assisted Therapy and Service Dog Program



Each specially selected ARFkids Pet Assisted Therapy or Service Dog Candidate Puppy has been temperament and trainability tested and designated as a candidate for the ARFkids In-Home Training Program. The Pet Assisted Therapy or Service Dog Candidate puppy will be trained by the recipient family with assistance from volunteer ARFkids Training Partners and through an Online support group made up of trainers and ARFkids families.

Pet Assisted Therapy and Service Dog Candidate puppies are donated to ARFkids by Rin Tin Tin incorporated. The puppies, from the authentic and well known Rin Tin Tin bloodline, are sound in both mind and body capable of serving your child for many years.

ARFkids pioneered an In-Home Training Program to allow families to actively participate in the training of the Pet Assisted Therapy or Service Dog for their child. This concept ensures a strong life-long and consistent bond between the dog and the family and significantly reduces the costs associated with securing a working dog.
The ARFkids Pet Assisted Therapy or Service Dog Candidate is placed with the family at age 8 weeks following a series of extensive Trainability/Temperament Testing.

ARFkids is staffed by volunteers who dedicate their time and efforts toward the successful placement and training of ARFkids Pet Assisted Therapy and Service Dog candidates to assist children ages 8-18 in achieving as much independence as possible in their daily lives.

ARFkids goal is to negate the extraordinarily long waiting lists and exorbitant costs of some Pet Assisted Therapy and Service Dog organizations and provide dogs to children as early as possible at an affordable cost to families. Some organizations pose waiting lists of up to 7 years and charge fees in excess of $15,000.

ARFkids waiting list is about a year. The donation required for a Pet Assisted Therapy Dog candidate puppy is $1,000 and $2,500 for a Service Dog candidate puppy, plus a $25 non-refundable application donation.

Applicant families are urged to seriously consider the very time consuming and daily training schedule associated with participating in the ARFkids In-Home Training prior to making application.

There was a touching story on the television here last night about assistance dogs for children. They said that it costs on average 25,000 AUD to train an assistance dog here.
If I find the story online here I'll post it. Was excellent and touching and I certainly would donate to this cause.

[Found the Assistance Dogs Australia site and they say cost is approx. 20,000 AUD. Just thought I should post that correction. They also say they only have 180 in service in all of Australia. That's pretty small number when you think about it.]

From email from US Autism & Asperger Association, Inc.
December 4 , 2006
more at
http://www.northstardogs.com/autism.shtml

I have wondered if it would be worth getting a service dog for my autistic son, he can be so darn unpredictable and aggressive I just hate the idea of putting an animal through what I know he is capable of doing...I would be interested to see other's who'd gotten service dogs for their kids, but I am not ready to make this kind of a committment yet.

While surfing around I discovered this site with special needs service dogs:

http://www.4pawsforability.org/index.html

We just may come to a point in our lives where this might be possible but right now it's not. Anyone here have a service dog for their special needs child?

I have a purebred doxie pup 3 months that i would like to donate to a foundation that trains for special needs children. i am having a hard time finding one to call. If anybody knows please contact me. thanks

hi and what a wonderful gesture

I am going to copy your post to our Child Health forum as well as our classifieds board here too

welcome to NeuroTalk

My wife works with a local church that helps people train their own dog. It is so rewarding to see the look on a person's face when their very own pet becomes a partner in life.

My wife trained our Portuguese Water Dog for me and she is a Godsend. I drop my crutch...no problem. I tell her to bring it and she does.

When my wife had her knee replaced last February, she trained our 'Fur Kid" to take the clothes out of the dryer, put them in a basket, then pull the basket all the way to our bedroom -- some 80 feet away.

I am not sure about listing the name of the church, don't want to break any forum rules, but I was told more and more churches are doing this.

Take Care.......

Hi dllfo. I'm sitting here smilling at the picture of your fur kid helping with the laundry.

That's wonderful that all the work put into the training has turned out so well!

It takes a special family to care for a special needs child.
Likewise, it takes a special dog.

I have to credit my wife in selecting the Havanese breed 2 years ago for us after our cocker spaniel died. We got him before we had children, and found him quite moody, even with us.

So when we started looking for another dog, we decided it had to meet specific criteria.

Here are the criteria that ultimately led us to select the Havanese breed out of the 150+ breeds recognized by the AKC.
1. must have a great disposition (e.g. with children)
2. must not shed
3. must be hypoallergenic
4. must be intelligent
5. must be healthy
6. must be sturdy

We are a family of 5. My wife, Myself, our children: Ethan, our oldest is 7 years old, and has Cerebral Palsy. Eleanor, our energetic 3YO, and Judah our toddler.

One of our primary concerns is that we wanted a dog that would not be prone to be snappy, or moody. (I grew up with German Shepherds– another great breed– but our Cocker Spaniel the dog we had prior to our Havanese was very moody, and not great with kids.)
We needed a dog that would relate to Ethan on his level, and be tolerant if Ethan pulled her hair while interacting with her.

We have not been disappointed by our selection of the Havanese. On several occasions I have found Ethan with his hands entwined in Lady’s hair, and she is just sitting there waiting for it to be over. Not once has she ever snapped, or growled at Ethan. In fact she has only yelped once that I recall. To be honest I wished she would yelp more often because I personally know how bad it can hurt when Ethan snags your hair. Yet she has only affection for Ethan. Many times in a week she will crawl up into his stroller (wheelchair), or bed (when his bed was low enough for her), and she often curls up with him in bed or sits on his lap when he is on the couch.

It is for this reason we have decided to recommend the Havanese breed for children with special needs. Please buy from a breeder with integrity. We will have a limited number of litters starting in spring 2010.

Our Lady comes from a champion bloodline, and it is our hope that she will help bring the joy of puppies to families of children with special needs.

CAVEAT: If you have an older child that has anger tendencies, or might be prone to willfully inflict pain on a pet, then this may not be the best choice, as it may result in injury to the dog. Dogs are emotional beings, and all Havanese may not be as tolerant as our Lady is of Ethan.

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