It’s official! I’m getting an Autism Assistance Dog! These posts are currently quite out of date because I wanted to get well into the process before writing too much about it but now that things are really moving, there’s a lot to share!
I applied to Autism Dogs twice, first in September 2021. But a month later, I was informed that I hadn’t gotten past the application round. They got in touch though and said that there was nothing wrong with me or my application, just that they always have more people apply than they can take on every time they open up the application process; they only have so many dogs and so many people to train them.
Once that happened, I applied again in May 2023 and, this time, they accepted me and I moved onto the next round of the application process, which involved more forms and and an interview with two people who work for the charity. The main point of the interview was so that they could get a real sense of me as a person and of what I would need from an assistance dog but it also allowed them to gather more information, like whether we would be able to care for the dog, whether we could fund the training process, and so on. They had my application form so they already had a lot of information about me but the interview gave them a chance to ask more questions and for us – my Mum and I – to expand on the information we’d already given them. It also gave us the chance to ask the questions that we’d started to come up with. Going through this process, guided by autistic people and people who’ve had lifelong experience with autistic individuals, I just felt like they got me: no request or accommodation was surprising or irritating; many of my needs and sensitivities were already accommodated for; and there were regular check ins, breaks, and as much flexibility as the schedule allowed. It was the first time I’d experienced anything like that and honestly, it was amazing, if kind of surreal.
They signed off on me and so I went on to do a one-to-one video call with the founder of Autism Dogs. She was really, really lovely and we had a really long, really interesting and engaging conversation; we talked about the charity, about me, about all of this going forward, and she was very happy to officially welcome me into the program and begin the process of having me matched with a dog, provided we could meet the financial requirement of the application, which we had been planning for – especially since we hadn’t been accepted the first time but had been encouraged to keep trying.
It was made very clear early on that it’s not a speedy process, that you can be on the waiting list for a year to eighteen months. That was always fine with me because making sure that a person is matched with the right dog can’t be a simple process and, of course, I’d much rather wait longer for a better fit. If you and your dog aren’t a good match, the whole point of having an assistance dog is undermined: you won’t benefit from the relationship and support and your dog will struggle and ultimately fail to thrive as an assistance dog. I can’t imagine that it’s a situation anyone seeking an assistance dog wants to be in. As the months have passed, I’ve stood by that belief because I want this relationship to be successful and helpful to me in becoming more independent and and having a bigger life; I know that can’t happen if I try to rush the process. Plus I have multiple sensory sensitivities which ruled out certain breeds of dogs, again slowing the process because they had less dogs to select from.
We had multiple meetings – both over Zoom and in person at the Autism Dogs farm – but it wasn’t until twelve months after I was accepted into the program, in May 2024, that I was matched with a dog, a gorgeous black Labrador who is now well on her way to becoming my assistance dog.
As I said in the introduction, I’m quite a bit further down this road than the blog post suggests but I wanted to detail the whole process from the beginning with as much information as possible but in digestible chunks (as well as writable chunks) so that it doesn’t take forever to post – unlike my yearly album posts.
