Help TJ to fund the special training needed for her Autism Support Dog Tāne

My amazing daughter TJ is 26yo she has Autism Spectrum Disorder level 2, with Asperger's, ADHD, and both Generalized and Social Anxiety Disorders.

TJ is also sensitive to light, smell and noise. However natural, animal and nature/weather noise doesn't bother her as much as talking, people noise and music, traffic, clanging noises etc do.

TJ also has lived with Tactile Defensiveness/Hypersensitivity to Touch since she was a baby. This means that a touch on her skin, or a hug is actually physically painful for her. Just the act of wearing clothes is hard and we have to wash them specially and choose soft fabrics so they are not too scratchy and uncomfortable. TJ struggles to wash herself or her hair as just doing that can hurt and feel uncomfortable on really bad days.

As you can imagine this makes life pretty difficult and depressing at times. Animals seem to help calm TJ and make her feel better when she's down. She wants to get out of bed and out of the house when she has a dog by her side.

The waiting list for therapy dogs are very long and these dogs often go to children rather than adults sadly. So we began fundraising in early May to purchased a puppy and do the required support dog training. In late May we withdrew some funds we had raised, so we could purchase a beautiful puppy with a great personality and seemed like he would be suitable for the special training he'd need to be TJ's Autism Support Dog.

So we now have the lovely Tāne who is the new addition to the family. He's a Miniature Schnauzer and we are continuing to raising funds for the important part of his training to become her Autism Support Dog. We'd love your help to spread the word about this and to be able to achieve this goal for TJ to help her to live a happy and full life.

TJ will be requing more hospital visits, an MRI and surgery soon and this is why we have to move quickly as it's important for her to have her to be able to have her companion by her side (or close by) through the tests, procedures and to come home to after surgery would be amazing.

You can follow TJ and Tāne the support dog on Instagram, Facebook and Tiktoc...

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/tane.the.support.dog/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/tane.the.support.dog/