Kaiden's Therapy Dog

Kaiden is 8 years of age and diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Kaiden will benefit hugely from having a therapy dog as his companion and friend.

Kaiden's labradoodle pup Cooper has now arrived from Australia and has started his training. Because we ended up importing a dog we were faced with costs of $2200 above the initial $7800 we had raised to cover the cost of a trained therapy dog. Our trainer, Wendy from Therapy Dogs New Zealand arranged for the purchase of Kaiden's pup, ensuring that the bloodline is suitable for a therapy dog and also that all the essential genetic testing and standards are adhered to.

Cooper is initially living with Wendy for four months while she is training him to therapy standard, however because she is local we will be able to have ongoing contact with the pup so that Kaiden and the pup become familiar with each other before he moves in with us permanently. This has been incredibly important to us and a huge factor when making the final decision on who would be training our pup. Wendy has incredible experience in training assistance, guide and therapy dogs in the past, making her perfect person to select and train Kaiden's dog.

Until Kaiden’s diagnosis we were dealing with the unknown as he struggled to cope with daily life. Anxiety is a huge issue for Kaiden and he finds it incredibly difficult to cope when faced with new situations and meeting new people. He finds it hard to interact with people socially and despite regular interactions with other children finds making friends incredibly difficult. Kaiden is now homeschooled because he found school too hard to cope with on a daily basis.

Kaiden has an affinity with animals and is so incredibly excited about having a dog of his own to be his special friend and companion, and to make the world a little less scary for him. We believe that having a therapy dog as a constant companion would help to reduce his anxiety and also help him to sleep better at night – Kaiden has horrendous nightmares which not only disturb his sleep, but ours as well as we are up during the night to settle him after these. Being over tired takes a huge toll on his ability to cope during the day, to regulate his emotions and cope with his constant anxiety.

Because autism is a hidden disability, most people do not realise the toll that daily life can take on him or understand his behaviours when he becomes overloaded.

Links -

https://www.facebook.com/kaidenstherapydog/

https://therapydogs.co.nz/

https://www.facebook.com/Therapy-Dogs-New-Zealand-2152663578279111/