Autism Service Dog for Sam

This is Sammy. 

Sammy is a five-year old boy who has autism.  Sam loves the outdoors, running, swimming, playing in the mud and basketball.  Sammy also enjoys trips to his Grandma and Grandpa’s farm.  Sam enjoys attending school at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Autism.  Sam is moderately affected by his Autism; he is an escape/flight risk everywhere we go.  We have had a few “close calls” where he did get away, but thankfully only for a few moments.  Sam has no sense of danger, poor impulse control, and problems with sleeping, anxiety, rigidity and limited language abilities.  Sam loves to climb and is very agile.  We fear that he will soon be able to climb the six-foot privacy fence in our backyard.

An Autism Service Dog can be trained specifically for Sam’s needs.  For example, alert us to Sam’s attempts to leave or escape.  We can attach Sam with a special harness to keep him from running off.  A service dog can be trained to track Sam if he ever runs away.   We believe the dog will bring him comfort to help him sleep through the night, help to calm him down during stressful visits to doctors and encourage socialization.  We need to raise 15,000 to help fund the placement and training of the Autism Service Dog, Bubbles.  Donations can be made via PayPal to Samuel’s Autism Service Dog Fund.   

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Here is an email I sent to a local Cleveland dog trainer and behavioral expert, Rachel Friedman with A Better Pet, LLC (she is also a licensed social worker with a clinical background) when I heard that she may have a dog available for Sam.

Hello Rachel,

My name is Jessica Glowacki.  I have a five-year son, Samuel (Sammy), who has autism.  Sam is a very active boy who loves the outdoors, water-play, playing in his sandbox in the backyard and really loves mud-play.  He enjoys trips to Grandma's and Grandpa's farm where he gets to run around and ride his bike. Sam also likes to run away and has gotten away a few times.

I read a posting from Michelle O'Neil on the Northeast Ohio Autism yahoo group and we are very interested in Bubbles.  We have been contemplating a service dog for some time.  Sammy really needs a companion as his only current companions are grown adults.  He attends the Cleveland Clinic Center for Autism and has limited language skills.  He has no siblings and I work full-time as a RN at the Children's Hospital at Cleveland Clinic.  Sammy's father, Gary and his aunt, "Auntie Joyce" live in the home with Sammy.

I read your website and blog about bubbles and thought Bubbles would be a perfect fit for Sam.  I'm attaching a couple of pictures of Sammy.  As you can see, he is a blond too and I think they look like the perfect match.  When reading a passage in a breed dog book it mentioned how "Golden Retriever's are an exuberant breed with a sense of humor, can't resists splashing about in water and carpets the house with mud and golden hairs" I couldn't help but think, "That sounds like Sam".  We have a nice fenced in back yard on a quiet street with a lake view.  We do not have any other pets and Sam has never had any pets in the past.  Sammy is very excited when he sees a dog and loves to point them out in the car, but he is a little apprehensive when up close to a dog.

You may contact me at this email jessidobb@yahoo.com.  We would love to hear from you to further discuss this further.

Sincerely,
Jessica Glowacki

Rachel contacted me and we arranged for a visit in our home.  In the following link Rachel writes about the first visit and placement.






We are trying to raise funds to allow us full placement with continued training.  Please donate if able.

Thanks,
Jessica

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