So when will we get the dog???

That has been our most frequently asked question to date. And believe you me, we are ready for him whenever he is ready for us!

The process to train a service dog can take up to 2 years. As soon as we sent in our contract in June, they started training a group a dogs, one of whom will hopefully become Atticus' dog. We had to fill out numerous personality assessments regarding Atticus as well as long questionnaires that will help the trainers know exactly how they need to train the dog in order to best help Atticus. In addition, we have to send videos periodically of Atticus doing things he enjoys as well as things he finds challenging. We also have to periodically keep a 3 day journal of every single activity and any behaviors/challenges/issues we experienced.

They require families to raise their money in 9 months because there is a chance that a dog in a previous group could be a match for your child. So the earliest we could get a dog would be March of 2014. However, the latest could be late spring of 2015. we are definitely hoping for the earlier date! Some of the specific things the dog will be trained on are: TRACKING. We have had some concerns about Atticus wandering off or running into a situation (traffic) without realizing the imminent danger. The dog would be trained to chase him and take him down in a careful manner. He also gets very curious and if he were to wander off and come into contact with dairy or egg (which cause an anaphylactic reaction for him) - it could be fatal. So if he were to wander off, we could give the dog a command and he could locate Atticus in a very short matter of time. Another helpful thing the dog will be trained to do with a simple command: take/knock something out of his hand that he is not supposed to eat. This will be really helpful in those times where we are across the room and he starts to eat something that isn't safe to eat (food allergies, etc.).


There are a million more wonderful ways the dog will help Atticus, I will touch on more next time.

Thank you for reading and as always -- thank you for helping us reach our goal!!! God bless you!!!