Merriam-Webster defines trust as “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.”

Last year my wife and I placed a great deal of trust in Lea Kaydus and her organization, Siberian Snow Babies’ Animals for Autism.  Lea Kaydus claimed to share a common bond with our family – a child on the Autism Spectrum.  She claimed her desire to train Autism Service Dogs was born when her own daughter wandered away from the family while in a port in Mexico.  She wanted to help other families avoid the same.  The story tugs at a very tender string in a parent’s heart – one with an amplifier for a Special Needs parent.  This story invoked a feeling of a shared fate; a common bond.  She must be here to help.  She knows what we are going through.  We try to look for as much good as we can – we hear and see enough of the negative side.  Yes, we know that you feel sorry for us at times; or even worse, believe that we just don’t know how to parent; after all, if it were your child they would not act like that.  We know; and we believed that Lea Kaydus knew as well.

It was that belief in a shared fate, and a perception of a common underlying value system that made us want to believe in Lea Kaydus and her Animals for Autism program.  We knew that she was not one of the big service dog providers.  She was listed in the Autism Society of America’s service provider database and various other Autism Resource databases.  She claimed to be a non-profit and have strong network of supporters and volunteers that allowed her to keep costs to a minimum.  And she was willing to reach out and lend a hand to help out less fortunate families.  Her organization was donating an Autism Service Dog to a deserving family in honor of World Autism Awareness Day and Autism Awareness Month.  Many families applied. One was chosen.  It was not us. We did however enter the Animals for Autism program – matched with a beautiful Isabella White Siberian Husky pup we named Bella.  Bella was one of 11 pups in the Spring ’11 Autism Service Animal Training Class.  This “class” had been identified in March, 2011.  That would mean that Lea Kaydus had already identified and secured both funding and resources for each of these pups.  This is how she kept the costs down for the families involved.

Then came the news of the Pepsi Refresh Grant application.

The Animals for Autism Facebook page was all abuzz with the news.  Animals for Autism had applied for a $50,000 Pepsi Refresh Grant.  Many families were recruited to provide votes via Pepsi Power Vote codes.  Some families were voting as many as 50 Power Vote codes daily (sent by Lea Kaydus) – we all had TRUST in the organization and its founder.  We believed we all held a common goal – to make our children’s lives better.

All through the month of May the reminders to vote were there, the pleas to get Power Votes and recruit additional voters.  We were encouraged, entreated to get as much support as possible for this campaign.  Families rallied and support for the program grew remarkably.  And when the end of the voting period came, what began as a dream was now a reality.

During the voting period there was essentially no information coming from Lea Kaydus or anyone else associated with Animals for Autism concerning the status of training for the pups already in training for families.  Yes, there were families with pups already in training. Families making payments as scheduled; hoping that the Pepsi grant might ease a bit of the tension on an already stretched budget.

And with that the honeymoon period ended.  Lea Kaydus had won her $50,000 grant from Pepsi and the families who helped get her to this point were tossed aside.  It might have had something to do with the fact that Lea Kaydus was not ready or able to answer the questions posed by the families.  Of course, it could also be that there was never any intention to carry this program through to completion.  She claimed to have many volunteers as well as a regular staff.  Where are they?

The scenario that is playing out over and over goes something like this.  The lucky recipient family arrives in the Springfield, IL area to complete their last week of training after 12 – 18 months of waiting.  The service dog does not “respond well with the family” and it is determined that this match should not happen.  The family leaves, empty-handed with the promise of a different dog to be delivered upon completion of training.  Repeat for each family that is expecting a service dog from this organization.

Lea Kaydus (Animals for Autism) – you have lied about so many things and yet you want families to TRUST you with the well-being and safety of our children.  You have violated that trust that parents of Special Needs place in each other for what appears to be outright GREED.  You of all people should know how much all those little details meant – especially to an AUTISTIC child.  Our daughter was to the point she had all but memorized the markings of “her” Bella.  And it was nothing more than a SHAM.  May you reap what you have sown.  May I remind you that the “Bait and Switch” tactic is ILLEGAL in every sense of the word.  Please see the GUIDELINES posted here.  I sure hope you aren’t doing the same with the pups you are placing on PuppyFind.com or any other place online.

GlobalGiving.org – you have publicly said what an honor it is to work with Lea Kaydus.  You have been to her new “facility” during your recent “site visit” and yet not a single picture of a highly-trained service dog in training has come.  You “encouraged” the grantee to be in more regular communication with the families going forward and yet she has not.  How about someone just own up to the mess that this has become and admit that a mistake was made.  Her organization DOES NOT legally exist.  She IS NOT capable of the task at hand.  If she had considered attempting to make it right by hiring someone capable of bringing the task to fruition it was handicapped by your insistance that the grant pay for equipment and other tangible goods rather than trainer’s salaries.  You gave her $50,000 and she has improved her kennel and her backyard breeding program has been invigorated.  Yet, she CAN NOT produce the end product that was the spirit of the grant.  The idea was good – the execution SERIOUSLY FLAWED.

Pepsi – Your name will be forever associated with this grantee, her BROKEN process, and ILL-TRAINED service animals.  You TRUSTED GlobalGiving to leverage its grantmaking experience and proprietary workflow systems to validate each Pepsi Refresh grantee, work with each winner on milestones and budgets, and to disburse and monitor the use of funds under the grant.  They FAILED you on this project and in refusing to ACKNOWLEDGE their mistake they not only make themselves look bad, they are DRAGGING your NAME and REPUTATION through the mud.  Wait until the headline reads that service animals trained by PEPSI mauled, maimed or killed the young, disabled children they were to help.

Enough is enough.  Instead of saying

We are listening to the concerns raised and remain open to one-on-one discussion with any of the families who are still involved in the project. – GobalGiving.org response to question posed on Facebook Wall

Do what is right.  Uphold your commitment to Pepsi’s Guiding Principles.

1.  Care for our customers, our consumers and the world we live in. 
We are driven by the intense, competitive spirit of the marketplace, but we direct this spirit toward solutions that benefit both our company and our constituents. Our success depends on a thorough understanding of our customers, consumers and communities. To foster this spirit of generosity, we go the extra mile to show we care.

 

Help make our voice heard: sign the petition at Change.org asking Pepsi to Stop funding this DANGEROUS service dog placement/Puppy Mill

I sometimes wonder if I should be surprised that this has happened – after all there was a significant amount of public outcry directed at their organization.  Their founder, Lea Kaydus, has been dodging questions from the families she is supposed to be helping, the Better Business Bureau, and even the Office of the Illinois Attorney General.  Initially it was just her program’s web site (http://siberiansnowbabies.com/animals_for_autism) and then the Facebook page was taken down after the segment on KING5 Seattle’s Jesse Jones talking about the concerns we had with the program.  It remained down for a few days and was restored minus a comment here and there.  She insisted that all was well and the whole fiasco was nothing more than a simple misunderstanding.  She was “encouraged” by the grant administrators at Global Giving to have more open communication with the families that were in her program.  There has been no real communication between the families and Ms. Kaydus.  In fact it feels like we are being shoved aside since we have had the audacity to question her credentials and credibility.  She has also “relocated” her facility and left no forwarding address.  What are the families to do?

She and her husband currently continue to list puppies for sale at PuppyFind.com under the name Snowbabies and have been so kind to provide a phone number for contact.

There are also several locations in which she provides email addresses for contact as well and rather than ask you to search for them I will consolidate them here for you.
siberiansnowbabies@yahoo.com
illinoisanimalsforautism@yahoo.com
autismserviceanimals@yahoo.com

If her treatment of the families involved has upset you and you would like to voice your concern about what has happened there are people that you may contact.  Apparently, the concerns of the families are not enough to get those with any clout to take notice.  It will take the combined effort of many people.  Let them know.  The following are part of the GlobalGiving.org Grant Team that administer Ms. Kaydus’ grant.
dcallejon@globalgiving.org
kellis@globalgiving.org

Apparently there has been a bit of rearranging at GlobalGiving.org and those that now administer the Pepsi Refresh Project grants are:
Cooper Breeden: cbreeden@globalgiving.org 
Linda Shaffer Oatley: lshaffer@globalgiving.org

Instead of playing musical grant administrators it might just be easier to direct questions and concerns to the founders of GlobalGiving.org themselves.
Mari Kuraishi: mkuraishi@globalgiving.org 
Dennis Whittle: dwhittle@globalgiving.org 

This week the families lucky enough to be chosen as recipients of FREE autism service dogs by the Illinois-based Siberian Snow Babies’ Animals for Autism program received a bit of news that none were expecting.

They did NOT receive answers to any of the questions they had recently posed to the founder/owner of Siberian Snow Babies, Lea Kaydus.  Nor did they receive a response from GlobalGiving.

Oh.

You don’t know about GlobalGiving.  Let me catch you up to speed.  GlobalGiving is a charity fundraising web site that gives social entrepreneurs and non-profits from anywhere in the world a chance to raise the money that they need to improve their communities.  GlobalGiving is changing the way people give, offering donors a TRANSPARENT, high-impact giving experience.  All projects on GlobalGiving go through a rigorous due diligence review, satisfy IRS guidelines for international grant-making and tax deductibility…they are a registered 501(c)3 and receive a nominal 15% fulfillment fee.  They are the grant administrators for the Pepsi Refresh Everything Project.

Lea Kaydus applied for a $50,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project back in May, 2011.  Now as we have now heard many times over since the grant was dispersed; she applied for the grant as an individual BUT she didn’t sell it like that on any of her social media outlets.  Check out the Facebook post from May, 2011 and tell me who you think will be the recipient of the grant funds.

I thought I was supporting the Animals for Autism program get funding to place 10 FREE Autism Service Animals.  But that is another tangent and I really want to get back to GlobalGiving.

GlobalGiving recently had their representatives begin calling the families who were promised these 10 FREE Autism Service Animals, and in essence issuing to them an ultimatum.  They were told that they must decide if they want to be part of the free service dog program still despite all the unanswered questions (found here: letter in which the united families ask simple questions and very clearly ask for WRITTEN contact).

Did you just get that look too??

 Not only were they expecting an answer from the families but they were expecting an answer without having answered any of the questions posed by the families to them.  An answer by the end of the week demanded by a person who has evaded answering any of the questions posed to her by the families.

Yeah, me too.

So instead of answering those simple questions, admitting that an honest mistake had been made and she was in over her head, and maybe an apology, this is looking to be a knock-down, drag-out fight.  On the one side we have Lea Kaydus of the Animals for Autism program backed and advised by GlobalGiving bankrolled by Pepsi.  And on the other side are the children.  The children that these highly-trained autism service animals were to help.  Ms. Kaydus, GlobalGiving, Pepsi – may I introduce you to your victims in this struggle.  You remember, the children of the families involved.  Perhaps another couple views of this same event might help as well:

• And in this corner… by Ashley on Stinker Babies
• Despicable, nothing but despicable by Papa D on Perspectives from An Autism Dad
• Who is Global Giving/Pepsi/Animals for Autism fighting against? on Speaking4Sam

Right now, neither Ms. Kaydus nor GlobalGiving are operating in a transparent manner.  Secrecy abounds even down to the fact that one can no longer see the details of what is being voted on during the Pepsi Refresh Project…all one sees is the teaser.  There was a time when you could see the Project outline, the proposed budget, and there was even a blog that accompanied the project.  That has all been removed…apparently that was too transparent.  People might get upset if the idea being funded was not the same idea they had voted on and supported. (CLICK on the picture to enlarge)

I wonder why they allowed the submission of a project that had an unacceptable line item budget.  It was clearly outlined when the idea was approved as a contender.  I would have thought that if it did not meet funding criteria that it would be either rejected or corrected prior to being put up for voting by the many millions of Pepsi fans out there.

Too many questions left unanswered, strong-arm tactics by GlobalGiving representatives, and children caught in the crossfire while a company refuses to admit that it may have made a mistake.

Back on December 13, 2011 GlobalGiving sent this Tweet out for us to ponder:

I don’t think that the true meaning of this article (The Simple Way to Avoid Social Media Failures by Jeff Stibel, Chairman and CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp.) was understood.  I encourage you to read it and apply it to the situation at hand.  In fact, GlobalGiving, I would encourage you to go back and re-read the article.  I will leave you with the closing paragraph from the article in hopes that it will refresh your memory.

The difference between those who fail and those who succeed in the age of social media is simple. Success is no longer about fancy packaging and carefully controlled messages. When everyone can see what you’re doing, the most essential values are transparency, honesty and credibility. Even with advanced privacy tools — like private lists, tweets and circles — the most foolproof way to stay safe on social media is simply to be who you say you are. Pretending to be something you’re not, or attempting to conceal or manipulate the truth is a surefire way to lose. You win by matching your image with reality, acting with integrity, and sincerely apologizing when you’re wrong.

On Friday, January 27 2012, the following open letter was posted to the Facebook page of Siberian Snow Babies’ Animals for Autism:

Dear Lea, Global Giving and Pepsi,

We are grateful to have some form of communication from you; however,
we are sad that this came about only after many months of asking and
waiting. It is disappointing to all of us that communication was only
initiated after significant media attention. We all expect a fully
trained and suitable service dog for our children, reserving our right
to move forward and comply with investigations currently underway or
opened in the future.

Due to lack of consistent answers when posed a question, a history of
lack of communication and removal of Animals For Autisms website, we
feel there has been a major breech of trust. We are offering a chance
to re-establish some trust by once again asking a few questions.
Before we commit to any answer regarding our place in the program, we
would like to have our questions answered.

1. We would like the easily verifiable canine training credentials of
Lea Kaydus and each individual trainer who has contact with the dogs.
These dogs are possibly coming into our homes and we have a right to
know the specific verifiable credentials of those training them.

2. We would like to know if during the 5 months Lea Kaydus was “off
the grid”, did she maintain contact with Pepsi and Global Giving?

3. We would like to see the line by line budget of what exactly
Pepsi’s grant is funding. Many of us feel very deceived since we voted
for one grant (training fees) and only much later found out that it
had been switched after the voting ended.

4. We would like to know specifically if Pepsi and Global giving are
concerned with the safety and appropriateness of the service dogs
attempting to be placed with our children, as promised in the original
voted upon grant, or if they are only concerned with the “facility”?

5. Was there a service dog training expert on hand during Global
Givings inspection that took place 01/23/12? If so, who was it and
what are their credentials?

6. We would like to know the verifiable age and the sire and dam (with
AKC numbers) for each dog that began training. We would also like
immunization records from a third party veterinarian for each dog who
entered into service dog training and we would like the current
location of each dog who entered into service training including phone
numbers of any shelters utilized.

7. We would like to see a video showing all the dogs together,
introduced individually, with a demonstration sample of training
achieved in the past 9 months by each dog.

8. All the families that paid money into the program would like the
requested, but still not received, financial statements stating what
came in and from whom, with full amounts listed.

Being “off the grid” does not trump basic decency. There are many
other ways to keep in touch, none of which were exercised.

We kindly ask for your response to be in written form so all families
are told the exact same thing and for easy referral in the future.

Thank you for your your time and attention to this matter,

The Animals For Autism Families
Pooser Family, DeWitt Family, DiRedo Family, Andrade Family, Creighton
Family, Williams Family, Johnson Family, Spencer Family, Ristau
Family, Podkowka Family

In my opinion this request was very clear and very specific.  Global Giving’s response was posted 10 hours later:

Please give us a call anytime on Monday between 9 am – 5 pm Eastern. 202-232-5784. Please tell whoever answers that you are calling regarding the Animals for Autism project so that we can transfer you to the right person. Thank you!

Really??  One of the main points was that any response be in written form and you are asking for each individual family to call.  At this point I can’t imagine that you do not know who the families involved are as well as have the contact information for them.  And if Global Giving does not have that information, Ms. Kaydus most certainly does and just chooses not to utilize it.  It would seem that it is the families responsibility to initiate all communication.  I find it hard to believe that in this day and age, with her many volunteers willing to put in thousands of hours of time to complete her new breeding/training facility, that nobody would be willing to take and post pictures of the animals in training.  Instead five (5) months went by with no updates.  Families would like answers and these questions are merely the beginning.  I would recommend that you start there.

Those of you reading this post who have followed our story – please take a moment of your time and let Lea Kaydus, Global Giving and Pepsi know what you think.  The text of the families Facebook post will take you to the Siberian Snow Babies’ Animals for Autism Facebook page.  Please like the post if you agree.  Make any comments you feel appropriate and even more importantly – please – Pass this story along to your family and friends or anyone else willing to listen.

There have been several very nice gestures from outside organizations since the light has begun to shine on our dream turned nightmare.  For several months we felt very alone and isolated…what we saw as problems others sought to brush off as just minor inconveniences.  After all, a multi-national, multi-billion dollar company such as Pepsi wouldn’t stand for being made to look foolish.  After all, they have many teams of lawyers on staff and at the ready should anyone try.  We must be mistaken.

And yet I know we were not.

Recently, Patricia Gross (Executive Director of North Star Foundation) wrote to Donna Callejon (Chief Business Officer of Global Giving) after seeing the news stories, and reading the posts concerning Siberian Snow Babies’ Animals for Autism program.  She wrote to express her deep concern for the dangerous partnerships that may be created in an inexperienced way with a breed (Siberian Huskies) that can be aggressive to small creatures.  I would like to share with you the email sent from Patricia.

From: Patricia Gross
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2012 6:02 PM
To: Donna Callejon

Subject: Re: North Star

Hi Donna,

Thanks for your thoughts and I welcome opening a dialog with you…

Did the person you spoke with who received a husky have a child with autism as the focus of the assistance dog placement?  Remember a dog that is good for an adult with a physical challenge is a different dog than one that is good for working in close quarters with a child with autism, who is apt to bother the dog physically by way of challenging the amount of body space as well as poking fingers into the dogs’ eyes/nose/mouth…a bite can happen lightening quick, and it is preventing this that is about 90% of the work we do at North Star in terms of proper breeding, socialization, supervision and partnership of a child with autism and an assistance dog. Also please keep in mind that every breed imaginable has its enthusiasts, and there are even those that advocate pit bulls as good assistance dog candidates. Despite the variety of opinions you can find on the web, professional service dog organizations agree that the best breed for working with a young child with autism is most certainly a golden or labrador retriever, but this service dog selection should not rest simply upon the breed, but upon finding the proper pup in a litter of well bred golden or lab pups; for Animals for Autism to claim that all 10 husky puppies from a litter are to serve ten children with autism is ignorant, as there is no way that all 10 puppies will have the proper temperament (it would also be impossible for an individual or small organization to raise, train and place 10 pups simultaneously with children with autism; at North Star it would take us at least two healthy golden litters and $100,000 to meet this demand.)

Here are some facts about the Husky breed, obtained from Wikipedia; please keep in mind as you read how inappropriate this breed truly is for any child, much less a child with autism.

Huskies are an active, energetic, and resilient breed whose ancestors came from the extremely cold and harsh environment of the Siberian Arctic. Siberian Huskies were bred by the Chukchi of Northeastern Asia to pull heavy loads long distances through difficult conditions. The dogs were imported into Alaska during the Nome Gold Rush and later spread into the United States and Canada. They were initially sent to Alaska and Canada as sled dogs but rapidly acquired the status of family pets and show dogs.

The Siberian Husky has been described as a behavioral representative of the domestic dog’s forebear, the wolf, exhibiting a wide range of its ancestors’ behavior.[11] They are known to howl rather than bark.[12] If the dog is well trained, it can make a great family pet. The frequency of kenneled Siberian Huskies, especially for racing purposes, is rather high, as attributed through the history of the breed in North America. They are affectionate with people, but independent. A fifteen-minute daily obedience training class will serve well for Siberian Huskies.[13] Siberians need consistent training and do well with a positive reinforcement training program. They rank 45th in Stanley Coren‘s The Intelligence of Dogs, being of average working/obedience intelligence. They tend to run because they were at first bred to be sled dogs. Owners are advised to exercise caution when letting their Siberian Husky off the leash, as the dog could be miles away before looking around and realizing its owner is nowhere in sight. They are excellent “escape artists” as well, and have been known to climb chain-link fences and find other ways of escaping a confined area. They also get bored easily, so playing with toys or throwing a ball at least once a day is essential. Failure to give them the attention or proper exercise they need can result in unwanted behavior, such as excessive howling, marking, chewing on furniture, or crying.[14]

Huskies are rated number four in the list of breeds most apt to bite: http://dangerousdogs.net/

In regard to the plausibility of Animals for Autism’s grant, it is not just the puppies or the facility that need to be funded in terms of creating ten assistance dog partnerships with children with autism; it is the dogs’ socialization for the first two years of life, ongoing training, introduction to the child and ongoing support for this partnership, money set aside for the requisite emergencies, money to replace one of the dogs if they wash out; dogs are nothing like products that just need to be shipped.  Children with autism need to learn how to handle their dogs, and the dog needs a careful introduction to the child, and all this takes money, time and experience to do correctly.

All of these things are clearly beyond Lea’s ability to do; I know this because I have been doing this exact work (partnering children with autism with assistance dogs) as a nonprofit for a decade, and I can only make ten placements a year via two separate golden litters, with an up and running organization that relies on volunteer and corporate help for sustained support for our work; it isn’t just obtaining ten husky dogs Animals for Autism needs to do here, but to create ten safe and effective partnerships that was promised these families, and the real problem here is actually what will happen when and if substandard dogs are paired in an inexperienced and underfunded way (for true cost of this endeavor is more than $5,000 per placement, and the grant money not enough to build and sustain a facility).  A bite to a child’s face is a very real possibility here and the way I see it, everyone is just sitting on top of a world of danger if these families are served incorrectly.

Please feel free to ask me any questions you might have for me.

Kind regards,
Patty

Patty Dobbs Gross
Executive Director
North Star Foundation
www.NorthStarDogs.com
northstarfoundation@charter.net
We help children find their way.

Here is a respected, well-established service dog organization tossing out a lifeline and yet those in need refuse to acknowledge that they might have made a mistake.  Maybe, just maybe, it was not done intentionally.  Everyone makes mistakes.  What you do after the mistake is the sign of true character and integrity.  Where will your road lead Global Giving?  Do you see yourself aligning with the Pepsi Co. Guiding Principles or instead do you choose to stray?

Today was better than yesterday.  That is a small victory in the books.  At the moment I am happy for these small victories and am taking one day at a time.

Since April of 2011 I have watched as a small “organization” in Illinois elevated my families hopes of obtaining a autism service dog to stratospheric heights and then within just a few months sent it all crashing down.

Since officially withdrawing from their training program – I believe that we were the first family to join them in 2011 – I have sought answers to question and even to this day I have received very little.  There are several people who have stepped forward in an effort to help us get those answers and I would like to say thank you to them and those for which they work.  Without further ado…thank you for shedding some light on this story:

Mike Brooks, WICS ABC NewsChannel 20 Springfield for your segment
Chris Henry, Kitsap Sun for your story and Meegan Reid for the great photo.
Jesse Jones, KING 5 Seattle, for your hard work and the segment airing soon.
Better Business Bureau of Central Illinois
Office of the Attorney General of Illinois
Springfield Autism Resource Center
The Autism Program of Illinois

I hope that it will not end here but continue to burn bright and bring out the truth of it all.  For this to happen I believe that there will need to be a constant reminder for the families involved to have closure.  I wish I could say that I thought it stopped with the families mentioned in the various articles – I have a sinking fear that it extends beyond that even beyond the confines of our country into possibly Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.  Each person who has posted a comment on the Siberian Snow Babies’ Animals for Autism Facebook page inquiring about a possible service dog was given instructions to email for further information.  Below is our email inquiry to Lea Kaydus, founder of Siberian Snow Babies’ Animals for Autism.

Hello,

 My wife and I are searching for a service dog for our soon-to-be 8 year-old daughter, Faith.  A very quick background on her and why we are seeking a service dog.  Faith had a right-hemisphere stroke prior to birth.  She is diagnosed with Autism, mild cerebral palsy, Familial Mediterranean Fever Syndrome, Rapid Cycling Mood Disorder and several life-threatening food allergies.  The stroke also caused a disruption in her growth – the left side of her body is smaller than the right side.  Although not as extreme as some it has been systemwide to include bones and internal organs.  As a result she has had developmental delays and her fine motor skills and coordination are very poor which is only compounded by increased swelling in her extremities.  

 We are hoping to find her a dog which can help her become more independent and less fearful.  To help her mobility: provide assistance when she is having difficulty walking, retrieve items that she has dropped, possibly open doors, assist with getting dressed.  Emotionally: to interrupt self-harming behavior, stay with her during the night and alert us if she wanders, help her calm during “meltdowns” and ease both transitions and public places by providing support.  If it were possible for her dog to alert us in the event of an allergic reaction.

With all this being said; a service dog is desired over a therapy dog.  Our goal is to help make her more independent and less reliant on our constant presence.

 Would your program be able to assist with these items?  What is your wait list?  Do you have specific requirements?  What are the anticipated costs?  

 Thank you so much for your time and help.

This was answered the next morning with the following email which included an application to their program:

Thank you for your inquiry about our service animal program.  The basic requirements for our program are a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder, be age 5+, and have a prescription from a physician stating the need for a service animal, none of which should be a problem for you.  I would be most honored to develop a training program for one of our animals to meet your daughter’s needs.  Some of the challenges you have presented are more time consuming than our usual requests from a training perspective, however, they are all attainable.  I will address each of your requests individually.

1 – Balance assistance with gait is a fairly common training challenge, yet unique to each individual.  Part of our application package is a request from you of a short video to help familiarize our team with your daughter’s needs.  A clip showing her walking and mobility challenges should be a part of that submission.

2 – Picking up dropped items – easily accomplished.

3 – Opening doors – easily accomplished.

4 – Assistance with dressing is a bit more challenging and depends on the specificity of the actual tasks.  Retrieving and passing on articles of clothing is quite doable, but I would like a clearer description of what it is you would expect of the animal.

5 – Interruption of self-injurious behaviors – easily accomplished through a combination of the service animal and ABA techniques, but I would like additional details about the specific behaviors we will be training to interrupt.

6 – Spending the night and wandering alert – easily accomplished.

7 – Calming meltdowns – easily accomplished through a combination of the service animal and ABA techniques.

8 – Allergic reaction alert – This concerns me the most.  There are two ways of training for this, and I will need to know what your daughter is allergic to.  At this point, I am assuming she has an anaphylactic reaction to whatever the allergen(s) may be.  The easiest (and safest) method of training for allergy alerts is to train the animal to alert in the presence or near proximity of the allergen.  Additional details will be necessary.

Training for an average autism service animal takes 12-18 months with 1000 to 1500 hours of active, hands-on time.  Most of these programs are actually completed close to the 12 month/1000 hour set-point.  With some of the advanced skills needed for your daughter, I feel the minimum hands-on time will be 1500 hours.  That is normally spread over an 18 month period, but if time is of the essence to you, the animal could be trained for longer daily periods, and still finish close to the 12 month mark. 

All of the animals in our program are generously donated by quality breeders who are our close, personal friends we have known since our “show dog days” many years ago.  All are from champion or grand champion AKC or UKC bloodlines and are of optimal health.  The average life span of the animal is 12-15 years, with most dogs ready to retire between 8 and 10 years of age.  At retirement, you can either retire him/her with you but no longer in service, or the animal can be returned to us to live out his or her retirement years.  There has been recent press regarding a gentleman whose animal was repossessed for what the agency considered just cause.  I will not comment personally, other than to say that when we transfer an animal to a family for service, we relinquish all rights to that animal and simply ask you to return it to us if it is no longer of service or you can no longer care for it. 

In addition to having donated puppies, we have also been blessed to have donated space in which to work with the animals, gracious volunteer puppy raisers, and some donations of food and other supplies.  We also have incredible trainers who work contractually for us at a rate of just $5 per hour.  They consider their discounted rates to be their gift to our families.  We even have a couple of junior trainers who are on the autism spectrum and working toward careers of their own in animal husbandry and training.  All of this takes place under the supervision of myself, and I am a Certified Master Trainer.  The actual cost to raise and train a service animal is in the $20,000+ range, but we are able to place our highly-trained service animals in the $5000 to $7500 range, and the pricing reflects the number of training hours required. 

I cannot make a final determination of cost without a completed application package, however.  There are many pointed questions in the application package, and each is extremely important for the development of the training program.  It is not a test, but the clearer and more detailed your responses are, the better we can map a course of action.  Once I have that in hand and can meet with our team, we can determine the necessary training time, and let you know the outcome.  Our general policy is that our families travel to central Illinois for the final phase of training, which is a week of intensive integration and proper handling techniques to use with your service animal.  If you case, I am thinking may be more appropriate for a trainer to come to you for that week.  Should that be decided, there will be travel fees associated in addition to the training program. 

At the present time, we do not have a waiting list, and we have puppies just entering the early “citizenship” phase of training.  However, the waiting list can and does tend to change from one day to the next.  I have attached a copy of our application package for you, and if you have any further questions, do not hesitate to ask.  You are also welcome to call me directly if you wish at 217-XXX-XXXX.  I spend much of my time with puppies and in meetings, so leave a message if necessary, and I will get back with you as soon as possible.  Thank you again for your inquiry, and I hope we can work together to enhance the quality of life for your little one.  

Sincerely,

~LM Kaydus, CMT, BSA, MAS
Founder, Animals for Autism
AKK National Rescue
Autism Mom 

And even more impressive was how quickly the organization’s board met and voted to approve our application; and how quickly we were matched with our 5-week-old pup.  And even though we had been cautioned because of the lack of trainer names listed on the web site and where they learned to train service dogs; we decided to proceed.  Hindsight is 20/20.  I can only hope that others will learn from our haste and make a more informed decision that might also include advice/counseling from a local autism resource center, discussion the organization with an autism resource center in their geographic area, advice/counseling from knowledgable dog trainers and verifying tax status, business status, and their compliance with regulations.

Consider reading a few of the following blog entries:

Autism Service Dog 101 by Shane Nurnburg of Autism Epicenter
Time to Light a Fire by living legend Lindserella
Hey Pepsi! by Katherine Stone of Stollerderby posted on Babble.com
Another Fleecing of the Autism Community by Liz Ditz of I Speak of Dreams

Just a little light reading to get your started.  Thank you for your patience.  More to follow in the near future.