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Nonprofit Overview
Causes: Animal Training, Animals, Autism, Developmentally Disabled Centers, Disabilities, Health, Human Services, Unknown
Mission:
To increase independence and quality of life for people with disabilities through the use of trained dogs, processes defined by which provide the most canine-related benefits for children with Pervasive Developmental Disorder.
Programs:
In 2001 Dogs for Disabled, now under the training direction of Julie Nye, began work with "Larissa," the first dog chosen for the Assistive-Search-Alert (ASA) job. Larissa was certified in 2002 for public assistance and 2003 for search and rescue.
In the last five years other ASA dogs have been successfully trained and placed with in a variety of different home situations, proving that the concept can be realistically applied. In 2007 Dogs for Disabled made the decision to focus primarily on the disability of Autism, and thus altered the program name to Dogs for Autism. We hope to greatly increase the use of service dogs to benefit individuals and families coping with autism.Dogs for Autism does not charge the families for the ASA Service Dogs. However, the need is great and the program currently has a waiting list of potential recipients of ASA dogs. Each ASA dog has an average life and training expense of $30,000.
Donor & Volunteer Advisory
This organization's nonprofit status may have been revoked or it may have merged with another organization or ceased operations.