Tara's Therapy Dog

Tara is a beautiful 8 year old autistic girl. She also has ADHD, Global Developmental Delay and sensory issues. Tara has such a free spirit about her, and loves to be outdoors, running, swimming, and jumping on the trampoline, however she also struggles quite a lot with every day tasks. Tara's anxiety and sensory issues can create some significant challenges for her, and are huge barriers to her attending school full time, participating in events in the community, and doing everyday things like going to the supermarket, or to places where there is lots of people, noises, and different smells. This more often than not leads to sensory overload, and Tara will have a meltdown. To those that don't know a lot about autism, it will appear as a tantrum, when in fact it is far from it. It is when everything gets too much for her, she is extremely heightened, and the only way she can express this is by letting it out, she will often yell, scream, cover her ears, run away, and during these moments has no awareness of safety for herself or others. We have struggled to get help for her over the years due to lack of public funded supports in our community, being put on waitlist, after waitlist, and in the meantime we struggle. In December 2019, Tara's application for a Therapy Dog was accepted, and she will be able to meet her own dog as early as July 2020, however we need to raise $12,500 plus gst in total to cover the cost of the dog, special training so it can become a certified therapy dog, and everything else that comes with the dog. We will be working on projects in the community, and fundraisers to help us cover these costs. Having a therapy dog for Tara will mean she is able to go to school more often, reducing her anxiety considerably, attend events in the community, play sport with other kids, and be able to go to the supermarket, shopping malls, without it all getting too much. This dog will not only benefit Tara, but other people as well, as we will be able to take it into rest homes to visit the elderly that may not have many visitors, it can also go into the schools and work with small groups of children.