At Autism Anchoring Dogs, we will provide a service dog trained for the needs of a child with autism, all safety gear, and adult handler training to ensure the family can operate safely in the world with their new dog.
Our services generally fall into
3 broad categories:
ANCHORING and COMFORTING: First and foremost, our autism service dogs are specifically trained to provide a positive counter-balance to a wandering autistic child. They will progressively brace against being pulled and will hold their position until released by the adult handler. Additionally, they have been trained to provide calming behaviors such as leaning or placing their heads on the child’s lap to help provide comfort and reassuring pressure. Other behaviors may be trained during the placement process at the request of the family to help calm the child or help them to interact with the dog and the public.
OBEDIENCE: All of our dogs will have a solid foundation of basic obedience. These commands assist the parent or guardian by minimizing the time spent to maintain control of the dog, allowing more time to focus on their child and surroundings. Every autism anchoring dog placed with a family fully meets the requirements of a service animal as outlined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA Service Animal Guidelines), Assistance Dogs International (ADI), and the International Association of Assistance Dog Partners (IAADP). These standards provide an internationally recognized baseline for behavior expected from service animals in public. These commands and mechanics will be covered during the first week of Team Training (see below).
SOCIALIZATION: Lastly, but importantly, all of our dogs have gone through a comprehensive socialization process to ensure that they are comfortable and will perform properly under a wide variety of public settings. This includes temperament testing around loud noises, physical contact, jostling, etc. All of our dogs are then certified to meet the requirements of the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen program (AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC)).
During “Team Training,” we will train the adult family member(s) to be the service dog’s handlers. Usually, this is the person that spends the most time taking care of the child, but may include others such as school aides and other members of the family. Each situation and family is different, and we do our best to accommodate individual needs.
Our Team Training policy is we come out to you – there is no training at our facility. The reasons for this are twofold:
1) Most children with autism don’t like changes to their routine, and having them relocate to our facility would create unnecessary stress. Likewise, for many parents, leaving their child for a week or more to train often represents a hardship.
2) The dogs need to adapt and learn in the place where they will be working with their new family. We know they work well at our locations – we need them to work well in the places you’ll be taking them. Having us train in your area ensures they are comfortable and capable in the places you live and work and reduces stress for everyone involved (including the service dog).
Team Training is a 2-week process, with the first week dedicated to teaching the parent handler all of the commands and mechanics associated with working with their service dog in public. During the second week of training, we bring your son or daughter into the Team. Here, the focus is on refining and integrating the Team into a working unit.
After Team Training we are available by phone, text, and email to answer any questions that may arise. If necessary, we are also available to follow-up in person and help troubleshoot problems should they occur. This is rare, but happens from time to time. We seek to maintain a high level of proficiency in both the service dog and the handler’s skills.
At AAD, we want your family to be successful and return to many of the activities you once enjoyed. We are committed to helping you maintain your service dog’s ability to perform its tasks for your family in the years to come.