u/Big_Comfortable_2569

Hi, I posted here before but wanted to come back to the community now that I am a little further along in my journey.

I live in Pennsylvania and am within the distance of three ADI orgs that would serve my needs: Susquehanna Service Dogs, United Disabilities Services, and Main Line Deputy Dog. My application for UDS is complete and after review they have invited me to between 3-6 puppy classes before being placed on their waitlist- I have been to two so far. SSD applications open in June and will begin that ASAP. Here is my question…

Has anyone gone through an ADI accredited in-person owner training program? MLDD does I think weekly classes with a dog the handler identifies, and they can help temperament test and assess as needed. How heavily should I consider this route? I would prefer a golden and I know they are much harder to come by as opposed to labs for both UDS and SSD. Rescuing a rehomed golden and going through MLDD or Atlas sounds compelling- but I would have no support for a successor and obviously I would have a very heavy hand in the training. My biggest concerns are:

- my condition’s biggest symptom is chronic fatigue. I am able to maintain my full time job, however outside of this I struggle to maintain daily tasks

- there is only about a 50/50 shot the dog makes it, and even if the dog does there is no support for receiving a successor without beginning the training process again

- I would not consider a puppy as I am not in the position to serve the needs of a puppy, so I would be looking for an adolescent or young adult dog and therefore not necessarily know its background

I know there are so many successful owner trainers and MLDD/Atlas are ADI accredited so I feel I can trust them to be a quality organization. I still can’t help but think that it’s a gamble. I realize this is a very privileged and good problem to have considering all three-four of these orgs would be fairly minimal cost in comparison with others. I would love to hear your experiences, both successes and failures, to help guide my decision. Thank you!

I, 23F, am diagnosed with AuDHD. One of my favorite fidgets I use to help keep me calm and grounded especially in public is NeeDoh. Because of this stupid trend, my local stores have been out of NeeDoh for months. I just went into a local toy store that always has a high stock of sensory toys, and not only was there a literal mob in there, but there was a worker asking every patron walking into the store if they were there to buy NeeDoh and showing them where the line started in order to wait for it. It literally zigzagged through the whole store. Even if I wanted to try and find another sensory toy, I would have to muscle my way through that mob which to me isn’t worth the sensory overload. For some of us, these “toys” are accessibility tools. I get that NeeDoh is cool, I like it too, but buying it out to the point of making it unavailable for months on end is so extremely frustrating. Even accessibility tools that are over the counter and typically accessible for those who appear low support needs are now becoming less and less available. I know eventually this will die out, but I’m just sad and worried that one of my two NeeDoh cubes is beginning to crack and I won’t be able to replace it. If anyone knows where to get it online or in store that will actually be available please let me know.😔