A family in West Sussex, England, is currently appealing for help to raise funds for a trained dog that can prevent their autistic daughter running into traffic.
Isabelle King is a gorgeous six-year-old girl, who unfortunately can become stressed enough to run off when she has what her parents describe as a “meltdown”. This can be incredibly dangerous when she’s out with her whole family, as her parents also have to manage two other siblings and cannot always get to Isabelle in time when this happens.
The family is now appealing for help to raise the £7,000 needed to train an assistance dog to keep Isabelle safe and provide her with the much needed help and support she so desperately needs.
Dogs For The Disabled, a charity which provides free assistance dogs to people in need, is currently so overwhelmed with requests that Isabelle cannot even join a waiting list. The family must now turn to an organisation called Service Dogs Europe, who train dogs to support people with special needs, but require £7,000 to fund a dog’s training in advance.
Isabelle was diagnosed with severe autism and severely disordered development of speech and language when she was two-years-old. Since then, every day has been struggle for the little girl and her family. Her autism means she struggles to understand the world around her and this, understandably, makes her very anxious.
It has also become impossible for her mum to take all three children out without the help of another adult. Speaking to the Crawley News, Isabelle’s mum, Michelle says: "What drove me to finally do it was when I tried to take the three children to the park.
"Isabelle decided to just run off. She had enough and shot off out of the park.
"I had to leave my two-year-old, throw my bag down and run after her. She is so fast. I was running and sobbing and just thought 'this is too much'."
An assistance dog is trained to sense when their owner is going to have a “meltdown” and would be able to raise an alarm if there was a danger of Isabelle running off.
If the six-year-old does manage to run off, the dog is trained to catch up with her and run around her in circles to distract her and physically prevent her from running into a road by placing itself between her and the danger.
Speaking about the need for an assistance dog, Michelle says: "My husband works six days a week and I am Isabelle's full-time carer. Having the dog would make such a difference because she does have very challenging behaviour.”
The family has set up a Facebook page and a fundraising page to help reach their target.
