4 Paws highly skilled Autism Assistance Dogs

4 Paws was the first agency in the United States to begin placing highly skilled Autism Assistance Dogs and the first agency known to place these assistance dogs with tracking skills.

While smaller organizations are attempting to duplicate our services, 4 Paws remains the organization that many autism groups both at the national and local levels recommend to their families. We receive hundreds of calls each year in which the families state they received our contact information from these groups.

As the founding agency of autism assistance dogs with tracking we continue to provide the highest quality of dogs to every child who applies. 4 Paws, unlike almost every other agency does not pick and choose whose child will get a dog. As long as the child’s physician approves the dog and it is safe to place a dog in the home, no family is turned away. We continue our services with no long waiting lists and continue as always to “partner” with our families to provide the autism service dog their child needs.

In addition, our online group for 4 Paws Families has a membership of hundreds of families. With a group of families, all either having, or in the process of obtaining a service dog from our agency, all in one place with access to each other it is obvious that our families love their dogs and are very happy with our autism service dogs.

They feel that being a part of the 4 Paws family is an honor and are happy to remain on our online network to help the next group of families find the same happiness they did in a friend with 4 Paws.

Children with disabilities present a unique challenge to parents. Autism presents even more unique challenges than other more prevalent disabilities.

The child with Autism does not connect well with his or her environment. 

Autism manifests itself most strikingly as impairments in communication and in the formation of social relationships.

Children with Autism are often nonverbal, or when they are verbal they usually do not use the skill to actively communicate with other people in their environment.

Many children with this disability have a strong need for a structured, routine environment; change creates feelings or fear and/or anxiety. Some children even exhibit serious behavioral changes including, at times, self-injury.