Mia Montgomery Autism Service Dog Fundraiser

Mia is an amazing, intelligent, and loving 5 year old girl. She was diagnosed with level 2 Autism and speech delay at 2.5 years old. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that can cause significant social, communication, and behavioral challenges. There is no cure for Autism, however, there are a number of interventions and tools which have proven effective in helping a person with Autism. One tool is an Autism Service Dog, which we feel is perfect for Mia based on her love of animals. After extensive research, we decided to pursue getting Mia an Autism Service Dog through 4 Paws for Ability. 

4 Paws Autism Assistance Dogs can be trained in a variety of tasks to assist a child. These include behavior disruption to distract and disrupt repetitive behaviors or meltdowns, tethering to prevent and protect a child from wandering, and search and rescue tracking to locate a child who has wandered.

An Autism Assistance Dog would benefit Mia in many ways, such as:

• Performing deep pressure by lying across her lap when she gets upset or overwhelmed. 
• Snuggling or giving kisses when Mia is upset and crying.
• Improve Mia's sleep by snuggling and just being in the room with her. 
• Using search and rescue skills to follow Mia’s scent and lead us to her, should she ever wander off.
• Prevent wandering while out in public by being tethered to Mia.
• Friendship/companionship. 
• Becoming a social bridge leading to incentive to communicate.
• Assisting with transitions.
• Teaching responsibility.

We are asking for your help in our efforts to raise the money needed for our daughter to become one of the many children benefiting from a service animal.