Assistance Dogs International

Assistance Dogs International, Inc. (ADI) is a worldwide coalition of not-for-profit programs that train and place Assistance Dogs. Autism Service dogs can provide physical safety and an emotional anchor for children with autism. Programs train these dogs in a variety of tasks to assist a child.  These include behavior disruption to distract and disrupt repetitive behaviors or meltdowns, tethering to prevent and protect a child from wandering, and search and rescue tracking to locate a child who has wandered.  The following benefits are not task trained skills, however, they are possible additional benefits that may be derived from having an Autism Service Dog: a best friend who loves and accepts them unconditionally, comfort to help the child fall asleep or fall back to sleep if woken up in the night, social interactions with other children, the responsibility to the needs of the dog, improved verbal skills by giving commands, and assists with anxiety with changing environments out in the public.   Assistance Dogs are NOT Therapy Dogs or Companion Dogs.  Assistance Dogs are trained to perform tasks to mitigate an individual's disability.