My Friendly Pets

Tender Loving Canines is a non profit organization out of California that provides service dogs for persons with disabilities in San Diego, California. It is an all volunteer organization that supports and sustains itself through membership, grants, sponsorships and donations. They provide dogs to persons with various disabilities including mobility issues and persons with seizures. However, one of their projects that began late last year is called “Leash on Life”, which addresses the needs of those who have autism.

Children with autism have very special needs as changes in their behavior and their lack of responsiveness to human contact and communication is often a result of this condition. The first dog trained through TLCAD for this specific purpose is named Little Miss Muffet and her trainer is Karen Schultz. Dogs for this special service require training that helps to provide safety to a little girl with autism named Jolena Gonzalez. Jolena is five years old and because of her autism, she will often spontaneously run away from the family and her emotional outbursts and meltdowns make it difficult for Jolena to enjoy outside family time. Jolena will be connected to Muffet by a special vest. If Jolena begins to run away, Muffet has been trained to lay down until Jolena’s parents can intervene. However, there is much more going on between Jolena and Muffet. Muffet will also help Jolena with many things that are often difficult for children with autism. Skills that will be developed and enhanced for Jolena include cognitive development, social interaction and fine motor skills. Using Miss Muffet with Jolena has proved to be very successful.
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Tender Loving Canines Assistance Dogs is certified by Assistance Dogs International. They truly focus on the quality of the dog provided to the people that need them rather than the quantity of dogs they can train. Their method includes one trainer working with one dog that eventually works with one family that needs the dog. All dogs are provided free of charge to those apply and are approved.

Check out a cute entry about a man with cats.