Trooper's Journey
Help Trooper Train to be Emily's Service Dog
Please Help Us Raise the Funds to Pay for Trooper's
Service Dog Training with Paws for Independence
Money Raised by Emily: $1,824.10
Emily is trying to raise as much money as she can by babysitting, poop scooping, nail trimming, and other fundraising efforts.
Overall Goal: $3,500
If you would like to donate and help fund Trooper's Service Dog Training hit the Donate button here to donate through Paypal
Every donation, big and small, helps and is greatly appreciated!
If you aren't comfortable with Paypal but would like to donate, please contact Emily through the website or our facebook page and we can figure out a different way to send us your donation.
Thank you for your support!
Donations will not immediately show up in the Money Raised part of the page because Emily will need time to update it, but will do her best to update the page as soon as the donations come in
First and foremost, I would like to thank all of you for your support and encouragement of Trooper and I for every step of the journey. From rescuing him and learning how to harness all of his energy and power all the way through the triumphs of training, the struggles we've gone through and the endless support Trooper and I have both received not only here in La Crosse but also from followers around the world. Without you we couldn't have gotten this far. God Bless all of you for your
love, encouragement, and support.
We couldn't accomplish this goal without you!
How much money do we need to raise for his training?
Because I opted to train Trooper myself for service work the cost will stay pretty low in comparison to the heafty cost of getting a dog that is already trained or sending your dog away for a year of training. However, we are in a tight financial situation right now because Emily was laid off from her job and is unable to start a new job at this time. We need to raise $3,500 for the training. That pays for the training for Trooper's lifetime. It is basically paying for us to go to training classes twice a week to get him trained up to Service Dog status and from there to continue improving his skills and train him on any new tasks that I may need him to perform.
Why Train Trooper to be a Service Dog?
If Trooper is a Service Dog does that mean he will no longer do Animal Assisted Activities and Therapy?
I have Major Depression, General and Social Anxiety, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I am extremely sensitive to medications, so I am not able to manage my illnesses with medication alone. I have been in therapy for years to help, but nothing has been as effective as having Trooper with me. He has become an essential part of my wellness. Since adopting Trooper he has shown a natural talent for alerting to increased anxiety, waking me up from trauma nightmares, and doing calming tasks when I am not doing well. In addition to his assistance at home, he helps immensely when navigating the community because he helps me to feel safe, helps me feel more comfortable in social situations, eases my anxiety, and has made it possible for me to go out into the community when I am not well where without him I wouldn't have been able to leave my apartment at all.
Training Trooper to be a Service Dog will allow me to take him in public places where dogs normally are not allowed, such as the grocery store, school, the clinic, etc. He would be task trained to help mitigate my disability even more than he already knows how to do. Some of the many tasks he would learn to do are:
-Provide a buffer between me and other people so that they give me more space and do not get too close
-Check corners to make sure no one is hiding out of sight
-Provide deep pressure therapy by laying on me to calm me down
-Provide other calming tasks such as laying his head on my lap to provide distraction in anxiety provoking situations
-Guide me to openings in crowds and the nearest exit
-Bring me my anxiety medication if I am having a severe panic attack
-Alert to increases in anxiety that could lead to dissociation
-Bring me out of a dissociative episode
-Turn on the lights in a dark room
-Wake me up and make me get out of bed when I am depressed
-Lean into me in social situations to help ground me and keep me calm
-Provide an "Excuse to Leave" in social situations that make me extremely anxious
Training Trooper to assist me will help me get out in the community more so that I can work through my anxiety and overcome trauma issues that prevent me from fully engaging in the community and life in general. It would help me return to school because I would no longer be too anxious and fearful to go to class. I also wouldn't have to worry as much about having a panic attack or dissociative episode because Trooper would help prevent and manage those symptoms. He would also help me try to overcome the debilitating aspects of my depression by helping me get out, keeping me following a routine, and help manage the anxiety symptoms that come from my depression. And he would help me be able to obtain a job and handle adjusting to the new change without the overwhelming panic attacks that have been preventing me from doing so.
Ordinarily Service Dogs are not used to also do therapy dog work because they are trained to solely focus on their owner. However, Trooper was meant to do Animal Assisted Activities, it is simply in his nature. Because he will be a psychiatric service dog and because of the nature of my symptoms, there are many times where my symptoms will be manageable enough that I won't need his attention to be on me 100% of the time like I would if I had a disability that affected my mobility or other functions. This would allow us to continue the therapy work we have begun out in the community. Trooper is smart enough to distinguish between his jobs. I will train him to know that when he is wearing a service dog vest he needs to focus on me, but when he is "off duty" he can elicit attention from other people. Trooper tends to know when he is doing therapy work and will know he needs to be well behaved and greet everyone in the room. If we encounter a situation where I need his assistance, he will still know the commands and can assist me. It will be my responsibility to know myself and not put us into situations that I cannot handle if he is not focused on me.
What your contribution will accomplish:
When you donate to this fundraiser:
- You are helping me return to a functional life.
- You are helping Trooper by giving him a job to focus his mind and energy on.
- You are helping break the stigma about pit bulls by helping Trooper become an excellent ambassador for the breed.
- You are helping me pay for Trooper's training so that we can start training twice a week with Paws for Independence so that Trooper can help me live a fuller life as soon as possible.
- You are helping me return back to school so that I can finish my degree in Therapeutic Recreation so I can give back to the community and help make a difference in the lives of individuals with disabilities by sharing my passion with them and helping them utilize recreation skills to improve their quality of life.
- You are helping me return to having a job.
- You are helping me overcome many of the barriers in my life created by anxiety, depression, and PTSD.
Number of Donations:
19
Money Raised in Donations: $625
Total Raised: $2,449.10
Why Aren't We Using a Crowdfunding Page Like Go Fund Me to Raise Money?
We do not have this set up on a crowdfunding website because of the limitations that come with those sites as well as the fact that most crowfunding sites take a percentage of each donation for themselves without telling the donators this fact. We wanted to keep things personal and set up in a way that would mean EVERY cent you donate to us for his training goes directly to his training. And we wanted there to not be a minimum that can be donated. If you only have a dollar to spare, it can be accepted. With Crowdfunding websites there is a minimum donation amount, we didn't want that for our followers. We also wanted to allow for the option of sending in a check if you aren't comfortable with Paypal, which isn't an available option on a crowdfunding page. Another feature that using our own webpage allows for us to do is show you how much money Emily is contributing to this fundraising effort. Crowdfunding pages don't allow for this to happen. Emily doesn't want anyone to feel that this is us asking for handouts, we really are putting in the effort to raise as much money as we can and we want you to be able to see that. These are our reasons for not using a crowdfunding page. Please see below for verification that this is a real fundraiser and that this money is going to Paws 4 Independence for Trooper's Service Dog Training.
How Do We Know this is a Valid Fundraiser and the Donations will be Going Toward Trooper's Training? How do we know he is a part of Paws 4 Independence?
We applied to Paws 4 Independence and were called in to do an evaluation for acceptance into the program on January 26th, 2015. We went through a training class that evening and filled out all of the paperwork for the organization. We are accepted into the training program where Trooper will continuously be evaluated for his ability to be a service dog. Not all dogs who go into service dog training end up qualifying to become a full fledged service dog. However, Emily has been working with Trooper since the dog she adopted him and over the past year has worked a lot of training him in service dogs tasks and skill expectations. He is already further along in the process than most applicants would be at this point because of all of his training. He passed the Canine Good Citizen test last year.
Trooper's age and lack of knowledge about his background and genetics do pose an issue. He is in that time frame where he is getting into maturity and unknown behaviors may come out that could inhibit his ability to become a service dog. By having him in the program now and having the support to continuously work on training to prevent any negative behaviors from being developed in this time frame gives us the best chance to overcome the possible challenges that may come with his age and coming into maturity.
The best way we can verify that we have been accepted into the program is by showing you the materials we were provided by Paws 4 Independence upon our acceptance and to continuously give you updates on our progress and where Trooper is at in training. Unfortunately we did sign a confidentiality agreement with Paws 4 Independence so we cannot share specifics about certain aspects of the training sessions, such as who was there and what kind of disabilities people have. However, if you have questions that aren't answered here and are not things that we have to keep in confidence, feel free to ask us to address them. Below you will find photos of the paperwork we were given.
Updates on Our Progress
~We paid a $20 application fee
~On January 26th we started training classes held on Mondays and Wednesdays
~On January 28th we paid a $13 equipment fee
~On February 2nd we paid $250 dollars for 1/2 of the $500 down payment we need to make right away. This payment was able to be made from the donations we received as well as the money Emily fundraised and worked for by poop scooping, dog and cat nail trimming, and babysitting. From there we will get put on a payment plan to pay off the total fee of $3500 for Trooper's lifetime of training.
~We did not need to pay the fee for the Canine Good Citizen Test because we had trained and taken the test las year in March and are already on file with the American Kennel Club for that. On February 2nd, 2015 Trooper retested with Paws for Independence as part of the training and passed with flying colors.
~On February 4th Trooper received his Paws 4 Independence Service Dog in Training vest because he has met their requirements to hold this title and begin public access training.
~ We are now trying to raise the funds for the next half of the $500 down payment by asking for donations and fundraising. Ideally we would like to raise half of the $3500 very soon because technically we were supposed to pay that much before we received a vest. See our facebook page for our current fundraisers.
~ On February 7th we raised the rest of the $500 down payment. It will be paid at our next training session. Now we will be working at raising the $3000 left for his training.
~ On February 9th we handed over the check for the rest of the $500 down payment. On February 16th we handed over a check for $300 after having an awesome fundraising weekend with treat sales and generous donations.
~ On February 23rd we handed over a check for $250 from our fundraising efforts.
~ On February 28th and March 1st we held a bake sale fundraiser at Petco and were able to raise $592. We handed over the check to Paws 4 Independence on March 2nd.
If you would like more information about the organization we are training with you can go to their website here:
