my understanding is that with our kids, the dogs are able to sense anxiety and can be used as a calming influence.

I have a service dog for autism! :) It all depends on the child. If the child is young, the dog is trained to work under the commands of the parent. The child can be tethered to the dog so that if the kid tries to bolt, the dog is trained to stay by the parent. Dogs can also decrease panic attacks greatly and even help with verbal skills. Autism service dogs can do amazing things. I know A LOT about them. I am autistic, and service dogs is one topic I am obsessed with. So.. ya. =) If you want to know more, send me a message. I would love to talk to you more, because I am a HUGE advocate for giving service dogs to kids with autism. They are SO AMAZING!

Hi I have not been on here for so long as I was on another board that I was really getting hooked on and was getting a lot of questions. However, I let them know I am taking a break and coming back here for a while now! I miss you all sooo much.

Flnative76,
I have a ton of information of Autism Service Dogs (Ssgi dogs). I have an Autism Service Dog myself and its a blessings... She helps me so much in so many different ways. I will write down more information for you soon as I do want to compile my thoughts together more. However I do want to let you know that you can either go through a service dog company OR you can train your own dog with some help of for example Petsmart advanced trainers or diligently on your own with sparatic help from them under the ADA. For some people this is much preferred and for others it is better for them to go through the organization. I think training your own under the ADA with help is a plus for many reasons but it can also be just as good to have one coming from an organization (I am getting one that is taller now in 29 days that has a lead to help with my balance and walking, etc.) The other one is ours and will stay ours but she will be just our at home dog now that stays home more with her brother, etc. and I'll have the big golden retriever as my primary service dog. He will know over 100 + commands and some very specific to my needs.

I was wondering why do you ask about service dogs for a child with Autism? Is it because you are thinking about getting one yourself because your child has Autism and you want to explore that route?

Again, I will add more information as soon as I do gather my thoughts together more concretely.

Much hugs (My Service Dog gives a big high five to the idea!)
Kris

Hi, I know from reading on the net. that service dogs for autism do things like:Keep children from roaming/wandering and leaving the house. They can help with dressing and lead a child to the bathroom and prompt them to wipe themselves. They can help them take naps by herding them in their bed and calm them by laying next to them or by them. They can be used to play with the child and be a companion on command and by instinctively.. There is an author, her name is Temple Grandin. She has been and worked with animals since she's been a child. She is an Adult with Autism. One of the books she wrote is: "Thinking In Pictures". I know of another book that is called:Animal-assisted Interventions for Individuals With Autism by Merope Pavlides. If you have a hard time locating here is the book number
ISBN 10:1843108674. My 7 year old grandson has high functioning Autism. He has had good experiences and found new ways of understanding and communicating by becoming close with them. They are not service dogs, but the are very tolerant of children's behaviors, like playing horsey on them and such. I hope I have helped you a little in your journey. Thanks for letting me share. miamirn

It looks like everybody has covered all basis on this answer. I came across these links:

National Service Dog Study for Autism
http://tinyurl.com/2fcymny

http://tinyurl.com/67cq56

http://www.autismsupportdogs.org/

I'm sorry I didn't get back to this a LOT sooner. Here is my advice and you it is long so you may want to copy/paste and print it out or something to read it easier if you want.

HOW to train your own dog: excerpt from my book (copy, paste and print to read easier) The dog does have to wear the service dog in training vest for longer before it can wear the service dog vest. Also, start similar to the beginning by spending lots of time at places like Petsmart and Petco. The trainers there love to help, especially when they know you are training your dog for service. It is a really great thing. All the places Ive been to have had trainers or Petsmart workers come over and try to help me (and they didnt expect a fee). I also had other dog owners and other people with service dogs coming over to me as it melted their hearts and they wanted to help as well. You can pay little for the classes and go to Petsmart or another place many times. Many people at these pet stores are becoming aware of the need and the high cost of getting a dog from an organization, so they usually get excited when they see someone training a dog for service work. You also need to get them used to NO table food ever. Dogs can have certain snacks like carrots or peanut butter, but you cannot have them eating it while you are eating. They especially cannot take it out of your hand during that time, as they will connect that with taking food from others. Taking them out in dog places while they are being trained there is wonderful. Take them all the way through advanced training offered at Petsmart or other places and get the vest started on them right away with a wrap around lease. It is really great Autism therapy as well. As well as great therapy, it teaches cause and effect to people on the spectrum who often have great difficulty understanding it through other situations. It also helps increase conversational skills and when the dogs are trained, there are a lot of cues that are in sign language and strictly to the point. A lot of people on the spectrum are more like Mother Nature in that way. Sometimes our learning has to start out as just so in the beginning for evaluation and catching up purposes. If a mother dog wants her pup to lie down or get off of something, they do not go into explanations but just take their pup off whatever it is they want it off. Then, they make their pup lay down. Those are just a couple examples. The logic or the longer explanations can be gradually taught later, especially if a person on the spectrum is non-verbal at the time or under a lot of stress. I have had meltdowns that have lasted over 1 hours and once they let Sasha in, I snapped out of it within a minute or so. It has even gotten me out of a bad panic attack within seconds. It is so amazing the healing and connection between people with Autism and these animals. If you decide to train your own dog under the ADA, it is not exactly going to be easy, and you do have to make sure the dog is up to it and is willing to do the service well. It is so worth it, more than words can tell you. Watch the videos on my website and you will be in tears. Go doggy!

This below is a picture of my service dog (that we together trained under the ADA) in her beginners vest! Isnt she beautiful? She is such a sweet heart. When I was in the wheel chair for a little while during the really bad Valley Fever, she always wanted to pull me! She naturally is a herding dog so she always wants to do a job. Service Dogs need to play like normal dogs and can bark and behave like crazy, but when their vest goes on it is as if they know; it is time to work and be professional. J I am also wanting to add that she got another patch that says Autism service dog, and there are Autism K-9 patches, etc. We got ours from a place called Pupparel. Get it? Apparel, for pups! I just think that is adorable how they came up with that! They have mostly stuff for service dogs of course, as that is where we got Sashas patch. When I get my new dog, they will simply un-sew carefully the patch and put it on the organizations vest. On this page, before I go into more details for you, I would like you to know that service dogs are supposed to get a discount, usually 20-50% off their vet bills because they are servicing a person. In addition, SSI is supposed to give an extra $50.00 a month minimum to help with their food, etc. Some doctors can actually write up a prescription to be passed through insurance to get your dog almost free if not completely free, as it is an assistance needed due to medical reasons. It can be a hassle or more of a big hurdle, but if you find the right person, that would be great as well. I know that earlier I explained just some of what Sasha does for me, but I want to describe them more in detail, as in the words and signs you would use with your dog. (In order to train for some of the things I explained earlier) I am going to give you a couple general statements and then go into specifics and details. A couple other things are the dog jumping at or getting my phobia away from me, and then coming back to calm me down. This also helps the public to understand better what is going on. There is also more independence when crossing any type of street, because if I did not have her, I could be standing and waiting to cross for literally forever even if there werent any cars. I will now go into details and specifics below. For the first one, as you are working with a dog for a person with Autism, a lot of people on the spectrum need input that they dont always get because they cant have a therapy room traveling along. However, the dog can help immensely. One of the inputs you can get from a dog is the lap-up command. The dog will put its head, paws and some of the upper body onto the lap or the shoulders. This can give some deep pressure inputs, especially depending on how much the dog weighs. The other way to get this input while out and about is for the dog to lay its head or part of its lower extremities on the Autistic persons feet while they are seated. This helps balance and perception through the feet. Another command can be given (especially if a larger dog this really has to be done with a higher weight) to do a standstill in case the person with Autism would try to run away from you for whatever reason. You would say standstill and then the dog would automatically stand or sit there and not move. This lets the person with Autism feel that they are being tugged backwards when trying to go forwards, which alerts them back to before they decided to lunge away. It also gives them input that can help relax them. It is sometimes a real safety issue and for others it helps them to not get lost, etc. (I can get easily lost another good thing is the dogs have good sense of smell and understanding so can help un-lose you) The belt needed for this is a wrap around belt. The belt hooks to the dog (you will want the dog to have a harness so when it does a standstill it is not on the collar where it would choke them) and then it is like a regular lease except for the fact that it wraps around the waist and has a clip. They are usually adjustable. Sometimes you may truly need to have a harness or vest for the lease on the person if they are really strong and the clip might somehow come undone. It is like a pulley 4-way affect, so it helps with the balance in traction for the clip. This brings me to another command that can be given. Many places teach it with a snap of the finger and the word go with your finger pointing to the object or child who is going away. The dog is basically taught to prance slowly or sometimes have to run to catch up to the person who is running away. The dog circles them or blocks them and sometimes even pulls a belt, part of the great wrap-around lease, etc. to pull the person back to where they are supposed to be. Another command great for these dogs is licking if the person with Autism becomes alright with it. Some citizens with Autism might not like that feeling, but for lots they become used to it and even really like and appreciate it. The command is the keyword lick. You can teach the dog where to lick, such as using the keywords lick hand or lick cheek, depending on the part of the body that helps calm them down the most or redirects them. It depends. You must work with your service dog on sitting, down, wait, come, stay and all of those other commands everyday, especially if doing this yourself under the ADA. There are of course the other commands I listed above that are as equally important. You should start taking your dog out pretty early in the beginning but not too early. You need to see how your dog will do and the service dog in training vest is needed for longer than when you get one from an organization. A great place to start as I stated earlier is Petsmart or Petco, and many times, you will make great friends there as you all start to know each other rather quickly. I would not take them to a restaurant too early, but after youve mastered some well commands and especially the process of the down and stay command, it is fine. You need to test this out like organizations do. You should really try this at home by having the person with Autism eating (where the food is within the dogs reach) and make sure the dog either sits if they want to some of the time or lay down. They should not look at the food - rather ignore it. However, some may look at the food but not be allowed to do any more. It is part of the leave it command. You can give them their special doggy treat. I just recommend the Charlie Bear low calorie treats so they know that they did what was asked of them. However, lots of praise should be given more than treats after a while because they need to be willing to do it just because and not expect a treat every time. You should make sure they are potty trained and you can also teach them to nudge a water canister or sometimes they have this in a pouch and will nudge that in order for you to know when they need their water. Just ask a person/trainer at a pet store what kind of water canister would be best for your situation (service dog) and even ask some questions or advise. Just offer them some water when you have reached your destination, sometimes in the middle and when leaving the destination. I want to mention here that if you live in a hotter state, there are little fans that you can hook to something so that your dog gets A/C. You need to keep them cool. If you have a van, the great thing is they have it like in airplanes so there are the A/C fanners like in the front for the pilot. Plus, as an extra, they have a big nice space! The dog can also be taught to give a command when needing to use the restroom. Some of the times, you may have to ask the place where your dog can go excrete. Many people have potty bags in the dogs vest pocket to clean up after them sometimes. Make sure your dog has gone to the bathroom before you go somewhere and most dogs are able to hold their bodily symptoms for quite a while as well as go on command. Usually a tree outside places is part of nature, so your dog can eliminate (pee) there and it will soak into it. Besides, there are workers who tend to those areas to keep them up. In all fairness, if they do have a bowel movement, you should just pick it up with the doggy potty bags that are in a round canister and hook to their lease. Some places have an area set up for your service dog that they actually have someone clean up after all the service dogs. I know this may sound like a lot but it really becomes almost automatic and not such a big deal once you have done it a few times. There is always a beginning. I want to mention that for traveling, if you were to make a flight ticket, you need to tell them up front that you will have a service dog coming along. They are not supposed to charge you extra for that. When you are boarding a plane, the attendants usually give an announcement about anyone with special accommodations (like baby strollers, oxygen tank, service dogs, etc.) to come first to board. In addition, many times for more room for the dog, you could automatically be put in 1st class and not be charged the amount for 1st class because it is an accommodation. That depends on the airline and situation. In my last part of this chapter, I would like to add that you guys should have no access problems in almost any place you go and that is including restaurants. While eating, your service dog usually lies under the table (if it is big and roomy) or a lot of times will lie next to the table, just outside of it. On my site, I have a link where you can print out an access card with an 800 number on it with the laws and regulations. It lets the people know what they can ask, what they cant, why they have to let your dog come in and if they do not what will happen to them. Many times, you should not run into too many access problems. Go to my website under the appropriate related topic and I have a link telling you everywhere your service dog is permitted but where there are a couple exceptions. It has things to help you prepare for each destination if you are just learning and it is unique. The places they arent allowed access to would be the Operating Room and Dialysis. All the other places of the hospital, ER, etc. they are allowed in. Some hospitals even have these dogs go into trauma units as well to help with animal and humanity-related therapy healing! Concluding this chapter, I would like you to know that if your dog is able to lay long enough for a college course, your dog does not have to be approved and listed on your INF forms as an accepted accommodation. However, your instructors in all fairness should be warned in case of allergies, extra room, etc. The college DRS cannot say that you have to have that o.k.ed to be as an accommodation. It is against policy and against the ADA access guidelines. They are there to be with the person so they are to go almost everywhere with that person without prior permission. I hope that this chapter has helped you understand more what you will encounter going through this process and the wonders it can do. I moreover hope that if you do decide to do this that you have fun doing it. I also hope that you go to pet stores for help and great training, for both dog and person! I know Im glad I did.

Hugs and luv,
Kris & Sasha