Why we chose Wilderwood for Atticus’ service dog

There are several nonprofit organizations that train service dogs specifically for children with autism. We decided on Wilderwood Service Dogs for many reasons and have been happy with our decision thus far. The initial application process was brief. We filled out a short form describing why we felt our child needed a service dog. This was followed up by a phone interview in which we talked about Atticus, his medical needs, his abilities, his challenges and a typical day in our lives. We made it past the first round fairly quickly, but the second round took a lot more time. The second round included the following information: 

1.       A MUCH longer application

2.       2 letters of recommendation (thank you JCS and CBJ for writing our letters!!)

3.       An essay about Atticus that described his activities, struggles and why we felt a service dog should be a part of our lives.

4.       A personality profile assessment test

5.       Pictures of Atticus doing things he enjoys

6.       Letter of recommendation from our primary care physician as well as a prescription for a service dog for the management of symptoms associated with ASD (thank you JA!).

7.       Signed notice of 7 day training camp in Maryville, TN for our family when Atticus receives the service dog.

As you can imagine it took us a little longer to gather all of that together and get it mailed to Maryville, TN. But we did it and we found out in mid-June that we had been approved for a service dog! We also found out that we had 9 months to raise $12,000. That in itself was extremely intimidating. But as I’ve said numerous times, God keeps opening all of the right doors. So with a tremendous amount of faith, later that week, we signed our contract and submitted the $1,000 deposit to start our journey. 

This has been a great learning experience for Atticus as well. He has been helping me keep up with the donations and the total amount we have raised so far. He has also been writing a thank you note to every single person that has helped our family. And I must point out; he is not a fan of writing. But, he has written every note with zero fussing and great concentration. I know he knows that these very nice people are helping him to get his dog. 

The picture attached to this post is one that I included with our application. Atticus LOVES to go exploring and we had spent the entire afternoon at Noccalula Falls hiking the trails. We have to keep a close hand on him though to keep him from falling and getting hurt or getting himself into a dangerous situation. It is worth it though to see the joy on his face. 

We will write more about how the service dog will be trained specifically to Atticus’ needs in upcoming blog posts. I know it took 3 blog posts to explain it all, but I wanted to give a really in depth description of the process thus far. Thank you for reading and for all of the love and support during this journey.