Team Henry: The Why!

We're often asked why did we choose to apply to Smart Pups for an assistance dog for L.

We had a chance meeting with a Smart Pup who was still in training in mid 2019 – I can remember that the handlers said that the pup was to be placed with a boy who was Autistic and had epilepsy. We were at Northlakes Shopping Centre to watch a movie and prior to going to the cinemas, L had entered full blown meltdown mode. At that point nothing we said or did was helping him. Cue the entry of a Smart Pup. The handlers, who from memory were foster carers for the pup, asked if L would respond to the pup. The pup, not knowing L, was taken over to where he lay on the floor and immediately went through its training and calmed L within about ten minutes. It was truly remarkable to watch this young pup respond to a child that he didn’t know in the manner that he did.

For the remainder of the year, Scott and I talked about applying to the Smart Pup program as we saw the benefit that Ruby had on L and were hoping that a dog specifically trained for L’s needs would be extremely beneficial. We applied for the program in October 2019 and were accepted in November. The rest, as they say, is history.