Caring for others and supporting the community has always been a core value for us and our business. Donating to a worthy cause makes us feel that we help make the world a better place. Among other things, we love bringing cheer and happiness to children diagnosed with autism by offering trained service dogs. APBC regularly donates additional training to our very special dogs and families.
This is a heartfelt letter we received by the mother of two autistic boys describing her family’s journey to finding Aly’s Puppy Boot Camp, and getting their trained service dog Leo. Her story filled us with tears of joy and contentment.
A Trained Service Dog for Our Autistic Child, a mothers testimonial…
We are asked all the time how we came to find Leo for Joseph, and I respond …we found an amazing lady, who just happens to have the most amazing talent and love for dogs. Her name is Aly.
It is this wonderful woman who not only loves and trains dogs but she also cares about the families who want to include a dog in their lives. She is amazing in the way she welcomes you, listens to you and matches you with the right dog. It’s an incredible process that is well worth it.
And here is our story. Joseph was diagnosed with autism at 17 months old. He is the third of 4 boys. One of his older brothers has autism as well. Our family has been in this world for over 15 years. Joseph’s journey with autism was a unique one. It never fit any box, diagnosis, assistance or medical book. Throughout the years, nothing quite worked to help alleviate his random triggers, two-hour tempers, daily shutdowns, or sensory overload. We simply pushed through,
My boys had wanted a dog for so long, and I was the one that kept saying no. With 4 boys and so much lack of control, and unknown, the last thing I wanted was one more thing to take care of.
But then, a pattern started to emerge with Joseph. By the time Joseph was 7, he was mobile, but still lacking basic social and communication skills. No matter where we went, he loved dogs – and dogs loved him. If there was a dog anywhere in sight, he had to go to it. You may be thinking it is common, but it really wasn’t. Joseph approached nothing and no one. He rarely connected with anything, neither people nor animals. He hated attention, touch, or the unknown. But he went to dogs. Something was different about Joseph when he was around dogs.
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