Our son Wesley is a bright, loving five-year-old who was diagnosed with autism at just two years old. Like many children on the spectrum, Wesley experiences the world differently — with big emotions, sensory-seeking behaviors, and challenges with safety awareness. As he grows older, these challenges have become more intense and, at times, frightening for our entire family.

One of our biggest concerns is Wesley’s elopement behavior. Recently, these incidents have escalated. Wesley has learned how to jump the fence in our backyard and has run away from home, nearly being hit by a car. These moments are every parent’s worst nightmare. They have left lasting emotional impacts not only on us, but also on Wesley’s three brothers, who now live with constant fear that Wesley could get hurt if he leaves the house.

We want Wesley to be able to experience the world safely — and we want our family to be able to live without constant fear.

Through our partnership with 4 Paws, we believe a specially trained service dog can be truly life-changing for Wesley and our family. A service dog would provide Wesley with critical support, helping him regulate during meltdowns and significantly reducing his risk of elopement. This dog will be trained to:

• Provide deep pressure therapy to help Wesley self-regulate

• Use tethering to prevent elopement

• Bark alert when Wesley engages in unsafe behaviors

• Assist with search and rescue if he does wander

With the support of a service dog, we hope to do the simple things many families take for granted — go out to eat, attend his brothers’ sporting events, take vacations, visit amusement parks, and feel confident venturing into our community together.

We are humbly asking for your support to help make this possible. The cost of training and placing a service dog is significant, but the safety, freedom, and peace of mind it could provide Wesley — and our entire family — is priceless. Any donation, no matter the size, helps us move one step closer to keeping Wesley safe and giving him the independence he deserves.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for taking the time to read our story, for sharing it, and for supporting our family in any way you can.

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.