Kaylee is a beautiful and bright seven-year-old girl who is diagnosed with a rare nervous system disability called pathological demand avoidance. PDA is a profile of autism and makes it incredibly hard for Kaylee to perform basic life skills or leave the house. Things that most children get excited for like going to the playground or theme park can be devastating to Kaylee's nervous system. Simple task, such as putting on shoes or putting on a seatbelt has the ability to shut down her nervous system and caused her to become non-functional. Kaylee is very bonded with our 13-year-old dachshund Chloe. Unfortunately, Chloe is too old to be trained as a service dog. We are hoping to raise funds quick enough to overlap what time we have left with Chloe and a new task performing autism service dog. Having an autism service dog will allow Kaylee to leave the house and work towards towards living a more normal life. 

Training a service dog to meet our child’s requirements can be very costly. On average it costs between $40,000-60,000 to raise, train, and place a service dog at 4 Paws for Ability. While 4 Paws for Ability fundraises to help cover a significant portion of this cost, families are tasked with raising $20,000 of that amount or $23,000 if receiving a poodle, doodle or papillon. We hope that we can receive assistance from our beloved family and friends to help make our service dog dream a reality.