My Two year old Caleb was recently diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). He is Mr.Smiles all the time at Church, therapy's,the zoo, basically anywhere you see him he has a BIG SMILE with his tongue hanging out (by far the cutest smile in my opinion).

At home Caleb ranges from Mr.Cuddles, to needing all the love, hugs, and squeezes to completely overstimulated in 0.2 seconds. Through all of this he has had melt downs that range from 45minutes to 8hours. We have all sorts of equipment for input AND STILL the thing we have found that works the best for helping regulate him is our neighbors dog.

Caleb is High masking so most people never see this side of him and as a mother it breaks my heart to see him go through this.

When he has a melt down it doesn’t matter if I offer sensory bottles, food, squeezes or even what he wants. He still rejects everything and screams and cries and bangs his head on the floor and corners of door frames. For up to 8hours.

Some of Caleb’s struggles are; impulse control (runs away), Limited speech, Needs constant input (deep pressure), some social anxiety, and self harm behaviors (banging his head on the floors and corners of door frames).

A service dog would; be trained to Caleb’s scent to help track him if he runs. Encourage more Language, Give deep pressure, and walk circles around us when Caleb is anxious in large crowds.

One day the kids and I were outside playing and I had to redirect Caleb to do something else because he was trying to play in the garage with all his daddy’s tools. This turned into a temper tantrum at first but quickly turned into being overstimulated. After about an hour of this the Neighbor came outside with their dog so I asked if Caleb could play with her for 5minutes and INSTANTLY Caleb calmed down and was able to handle basic commands again such as (time to go inside or go to the table).

This is just one of the many reasons a dog would benefit him. We know that this is A LOT of money however it will cover the cost of the dog, traveling expenses to get the dog, training, vet visits, food, and basic dog essentials.

We ask that you thoughtfully and prayerfully consider donating to help our sweet boy get a service dog to help keep him safe in public and calm at home.

Thank you all for your prayers and support!

With love the Collins Family