[nagdu] Missing Washington Co. Boy Found After 5-MileBarefootWalk

[solsticesinger]

Thank you for sharing this with us. I find it all very interesting.

I've gotten both my dogs from GDF, and have found them incredible to work 
with. The school has grown in many ways from when I first went there in 
1997. Some changes are good. Others, not so much, but overall, I really do 
like the program. I'm glad they were willing to work with you, and I hope 
you get a fabulous dog.

Shannon and Caroline
Are you a fan of Women's music? If so, join me each Wednesday evening from 7 
until 10 eastern  for The Eclectic Collection: a Celebration of Women In 
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http://mojoradio.us:9090
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Katrin Andberg" <katrin at maplewooddog.com>
To: <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 8:15 PM
Subject: [nagdu] Missing Washington Co. Boy Found After 5-MileBarefootWalk


There are many tasks that service dogs can do for adults with autism that
are real true tasks.  Many relate to disorders that tend to coexist with the
autism diagnosis.  For example I am autistic and also have a neurological
sensory processing disorder with poor proprioception.  The sensory
processing disorder I have because I am autistic and that is what I mainly
utilize my dog for.  Because of this disorder I have difficulty with
correctly processing my environment through my senses.  Personally my most 2
affected senses are my eye sight and my hearing.  I use my tactile sense a
lot to correctly interpret what my eyes are seeing or to tell me how far
away from something I am and things like that.  Pretty much I can never
trust my eye sight.  I am not legally blind but I do utilize many of the
same skill sets that people who are legally blind use.  I have been through
O&M training, which of course the state would not fund even though my drs
recommended it, so I had to pay out of pocket and it was a HUGE help to me.
I have also learned a lot by trial and error how to get along best in my
environment.  One of the reasons I am on guide dog user specific e-mail
lists is because it is a simple way for me to learn new things from others
who have problems with vision even though the reasons we have problems are
not the same and see how they get things accomplished.  There are things I
have read about on the list and then gone "Hey that would really be a good
thing for me to try!" and I do it and it is a great help to me and makes
things a lot easier.  I am a very independent person and I tend to learn
things a bit differently because of my disability but I still get the job
done.  I do not though have the benefit of a vision center or a state
commission for the blind or someplace like that as those places won't assist
me.  There is a local autism society but most of their services for people
my age are for things like social groups or employment which I don't really
need that kind of help with at this time.



For what my dog does for me, he does all of the same tasks that a guide dog
for any of you do.  He does obstacle avoidance, he does intelligent
disobedience at streets and other dangerous situations, he does stopping at
curbs and stairs and other changes in pavement.  He also has a follow cue
which I use quite often when we are in new places.  I have also trained him
to find our home, the last car we were in if someone takes us out, how to
find people I go places often with by name, how to find places I go often by
name and a number of other things for me.  He finds entrance and exit doors,
he finds counters, he finds empty seats, etc.  I also have a dog who helps
me at home only (I could have trained James but my corgi really wanted a job
so it was fun to train him too) who alerts me to various timers going off
and the smoke and CO alarm.  Again because of my sensory processing disorder
I have difficulty with actually processing what those sounds are or simply
not tuning them out and hearing them at all, so he tells me when they are
going off same as a hearing dog for the deaf would do.



The dog I currently have, James, I owner trained.  My next dog I had been
hoping to owner train, but due to life circumstances I am not going to be
able to so I have recently been accepted to GDF and will be going there at
some point in hopefully the next 2 years.  Finding a program that would
accept me and train the tasks I need (which is mostly guide work)  was very
difficult as pretty much no service dog programs train guide skills and very
few guide dog programs will accept people who are not legally blind.  GDF
was the only school I was able to find that was willing to accept me to date
on the east coast.  They have been great to work with and hopefully will be
a good match for me.



Katrin



Katrin Andberg

Katrin at maplewooddog.com

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