Therapy & Service Dog Program
An integral part of our day program is the raising and training of therapy & service dogs. The teens who attend the day program participate in regular dog training sessions, with Liz from Whiskey's Wish, where they learn how to care for and train dogs to become fully registered therapy or service dogs.
There is a significant amount of research being conducted around the benefits of dogs for people with Autism. If you are ever in doubt of the benefits, you need to come out to our day program and see our teens with our dogs! We observe decreases in stress levels, during meltdowns the dogs assist with calming and grounding, in addition we have seen improvements in language and emotional skills.
Our Therapy dogs provide a non judgmental, unconditional friendship, that is uncomplicated and life long!!!
'It costs in excess of $40,000 to raise and train a Service Dog'
Meet Our Dogs
Miss Elsa
Miss Elsa is currently doing us extremely proud in her new forever home, with the beautiful Lachlan.
Elsa continues her training to become a fully qualified Service Dog, supporting Lachlan in and out of the family home with tasks such as regulation, sleeping and preventing him from running away.
Whilst it is still early days, Elsa is playing an important role within Lachlan's family unit.
Sir Humphrey
Sir Humphrey is 8 months old and has already passed his first assessments. His obvious fluffy cuteness does not hold him back, he is well on track to becoming a suitable service dog. He knows his job, and does it well!
As with all of our puppy's Sir Humphrey will undergo 2 years of training to become a qualified ASD Service Dog, follow his journey on Facebook and Instagram.
Milo
At 6 months old, the adorably cute Milo has won all of our hearts.
This little man has a very important role to play in his forever home.
Milo has recently started his training to become a medical support dog for a young autistic boy who has type 1 diabetes.
Milo is already making a difference in his forever home, and may well be the thing that saves his handlers life!