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Jennifer Runyon wrote this article in the Urbana (OH) Daily Citizen: PIQUA – Dakota Foster appears to be a typical 5-year-old kindergartner at Nicklin Learning Center. He enjoys video games, coloring and playing with power rangers and transformers, but Dakota is dealing with complex medical issues.
He has autism, ADHD and sensory integration disorder. Certain situations including those involving large crowds of people, bright lights, loud sounds and changes in routine spark what is known among those familiar with autism as a “meltdown.”
According to Dakota’s mother, Jennifer Arms, a meltdown can range from “a firm, loud “no” to a full blown, flop on the floor tantrum.” This sparks a lot of reaction from those unaware of Dakota’s situation. His parents, Jennifer Arms and Steve Foster, have noticed stares and often hear “if that were MY kid…”
“I’ve gotten the “if that were MY kid” a lot especially from older people. At first I got upset, now I just blow it off cause they don’t know what’s going on,” Arms said.
Arms attends Sinclair Community College and while discussing Dakota with a mother whose son is autistic and non-verbal, she learned about a program designed to help those in Dakota’s position.
“She told me about 4 Paws and gave me the Web site. I went home and got on it and thought ‘oh this is perfect.’ He loves animals and he’s always wanted a dog,” she said.
4 Paws for Ability is based in Xenia. According to the Web site, www.4pawsforability.org, is an organization that believes “service dogs should be made available to anyone with a disability who wishes to have the love, companionship and independence that are the result of a service dog placement.”
4 Paws for Ability offers a variety of assistance dogs. In Dakota’s case, an Autism Assistance Dog would meet his needs. These dogs respond to three commands: touch, nuzzle and lap in an attempt to prevent meltdowns.
“They distract the child from whatever is upsetting them,” Arms said.
Executive Director Karen Shirk has myasthenia gravis (MG), a neuromuscular autoimmune disease, and started 4 Paws for Ability in 1998 after being turned down for a service dog by four organizations because she uses a ventilator at night.
“I wanted to start an organization that would be more open minded and not turn people down for ridiculous reasons,” she said.
4 Paws for Ability has placed dogs throughout the country and internationally. The Autism Assistance Dogs are trained in behavior disruption, tethering, tracking, basic obedience and some child specific behaviors. They are the first organization to train their Autism Assistance Dogs in tracking. With this ability the dogs are able to find their child within minutes.
After working with children with autism all of her adult life, Shirk believes the biggest problem is that “they get away.”
“When they wander away it’s a dangerous situation and a lot of times parents have to call the police department and have a search and rescue dog come out and by then you’ve wasted hours of time,” Shirk said.
Dakota’s family has faced this frightening situation before. Two summers ago, the youngster climbed out the window. After looking for 30 minutes, Arms found her son strapped in his car seat in the family van.
This also poses a problem when Arms is shopping with her son. Arms pointed to a recent trip when she was swiping her card to check out; Dakota ran off and she had to leave her items to go after her son.
“I’m hoping the dog will give him more independence. I think it will make life a little bit easier,” Arms said.
4 Paws for Ability uses shelter dogs or unwanted dogs donated by owners.
According to Shirk most dog placement organizations have a waiting list forcing clients to wait three to five years. Upon researching the cause behind this wait, Shirk found that because many places have only two or three people doing the fund-raising, and the organizations can only place as many dogs as the money people can raise to fund.
Because of this, 4 Paws decided to have each family do their own fund-raising.
“It’s kind of like Habitat for Humanity, where you spend so many hours building a house for someone else and then they build a house for you. It (the 4 Paws concept) has the same philosophy behind it,” Shirk said.
Dakota and his family need to raise $14,000 to get his Autism Assistance Dog. He is anxiously awaiting his new canine friend.
He said he plans to name the dog Bucket, but according to Arms, he usually says the dog will be named Harry Potter. source: www.urbanacitizen.com; article by Jennifer Runyon on 1/21/08. She can be reached at jrunyon@dailycall.com
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