Carmella

Autism Service Dog

I was dumped along with my brother at 5 months old and a nice lady saved us. She took us in and found us new homes. I went to my new home and found out I was going to have a very important job!

You see, my boy, Tyler, has autism. His mom knew the lady who saved my brother and I and the lady thought this was the best place for me to be. She said she knew I could do the job at hand.

So, my new family came and took me home. Little did I know how much I would help my boy or how happy my new Mom would be.

Within the first week of being in my new home, I alerted my Mom to something not being right with Tyler. We both went to his room and found him on the floor. He was having very bad stomach cramps and was in pain. My Mom got him some medicine and gave me a lot of treats!

When he felt better, he asked his mom if he could take me for a walk (by himself!). Mom was so surprised by the request, as Tyler had never been out of the front door without his mom or dad before. She was scared but she let us go for that walk. And Tyler did great! He met a little girl who wanted to ask him about me and he talked to her and told her all about me. This was one of the first steps Tyler made to becoming more social. And mom was ecstatic!

My job over the next few months was to learn a lot of commands and learn how to work for my boy and go into public where ever Tyler went. It was fun and we spent a lot of time together. I attended classes with him with the same lady that rescued me. So I got to see her every week too.

And little did everyone know that in that same time, with all the time spent with Tyler, he was getting better with other things too. His mom and his doctor was able to wean him off a medication (Zoloft) for anxiety. He went from 100mg per day to 0 within 6 months! Talk about happy, Mom said if I didn't do anything else, she didn't care because she never wanted Tyler to take the medicine anyway.

Well, we continued our training classes and working together and spending time together. I was trained to jump up on him if he "flapped his hands" and he would always pet me when I did this. I loved it. I also learned to tell my Mom when he was sick. It really didn't matter what kind of sick, I would tell mom. I learned to tell mom when he had a fever, when his throat was sore, when he had an ear infection and when he had a stomach ache.

So when I would tell mom he was sick, she would take him to the doctor. Well, guess what? The doctor wouldn't find anything wrong with him and send them home! Can you believe that? Then a couple days later, Tyler would feel even worse and Mom would take him back to the doctor. Only this time, they could tell he was sick. And coudl do something to help him. Mom figured I was about 2 days ahead of the doctors on telling when Tyler was sick. The doctor soon figured it out too. lol

I also learned a very cool thing! I learned to find Tyler anywhere he was. And to find Mom too. We played this game often and I always knew where everyone was. It was so cool of a game, that whenever Tyler's cousins would come over, they wanted me to find them too! I was always happy to oblige!

It has now been 7 years since coming to my new home. And I spend as much time as possible with Tyler. I even get to sleep in his bed with him! I love Tyler and love the job I do for him. And he loves me too!