Smart Pup for Rainer

Hello Everyone,
EDITED TO ADD: We have now reached our target! "Thank You" seems like an understatement right now, but we are eternally grateful for your support. All amounts exceeding our target will go directly into SmartPups' training and education programs to help them continue their excellent work in providing Assistance Dogs to people in our community.

We are fundraising for a Smart Pup assistance dog for Rainer. The dog will be trained to help Rainer gain independence and confidence, keep him safe, alert others in times of crisis and provide him with emotional and physical support.

Rainer is our beautiful 14 year old son. He is severely autistic and has an intellectual impairment. Rainer is curious, excited and adventurous with the world around him however he has trouble with decision making and is very unaware of the dangers around him, particularly around roads and cars. His confidence with exploring the world is something we want to encourage and having an assistance dog will mean that Rainer has a lifelong friend who can protect him in unsafe situations.

Rainer is non-verbal and regularly gets extremely frustrated with his inability to communicate his needs to his family and others. Unfortunately this leads to severe “meltdowns” and often he runs away from home to escape his frustrations. An assistance dog will be trained to stay with him, calm him and protect him until we can catch up.

In Rainer’s world friends are hard to make and interaction with others often seems impossible. An assistance dog will be his constant friend and companion. We know a smart pup will help bridge the gap between Rainer and the rest of the world, calming him and making him fell less isolated.

Through some generous friends with dogs, we have seen how excited he becomes when interacting with them and the opportunities it fosters for social inclusion, friendship and belonging to our local community. Our greatest wish is to see him have a life happy with friends.

The Smart Pup will be selected especially for Rainer and will be specifically trained to suit his needs. It can take up to two years of training for the dog to be ready. This is an expensive project and we need to raise $20,000 for this to happen. The dog will only begin training once we have reached our fundraising goal.

Through our savings and one generous donor we have managed to contribute $11,000 ourselves and are seeking to raise $9000 to enable an assistance dog to be allocated and trained for Rainer.
All donations made go to Smart Pups, and donations over $2 are tax deductible.

Thanks for reading about Rainer.