As we celebrate Bale’s 5th Birthday this week, we wanted to share with you Bale’s story over the past few years he has been Harry’s dedicated Therapy dog. He has been a wonderful companion to have alongside his brother, Arthur, and sister, Grace, as he has such a caring, loving and affectionate personality which brings smiles and joy to everyone in the room. So, in short, the perfect Therapy Dog!
Bale has been working as a Therapy Dog from 10 weeks of age and has excelled in his training since the very beginning! Since Bale arrived in his forever home, he was specifically trained to meet Harry's needs - assisting with toileting, sleeping, anxiety and distractions.
And Bale did just that, providing comfort and companionship to reduce the feelings of loneliness and isolation that often come with many learning difficulties and autism. Bale has been a loving companion to Harry and has helped him to the point where he is able to function on his own for the majority of the day.
Over the years Bale has been a constant source of support for Harry and has helped inspire independence with eating, dressing, hygiene routines whilst keeping Harry safe inside and outside the house. For us, Bale's biggest influence has been with enhancing Harry’s communication - we went from having a non-verbal child to a little man who doesn’t stop chatting. Harry still hasn’t developed total communicative language and his processing of language is significantly longer than a typically developing child, but he's progressing further than we ever imagined he would do.
Once Bale’s journey started with assisting Harry, he still had so much love to share, so it was a natural step for him when he realised this was something, he could do to help others in a similar situation. Every family's journey through life is different, add in Autism and it can become a pretty scary place at times.
Dogs have destinies too, and it seems being a Therapy Dog is Bale’s calling! Bale has continued training and is going out into the community to spend most of his working day’s visiting schools and residentials, assisting many other children and adults living with physical and learning differences as well as emotional and mental health challenges. There is absolutely no doubt that Bale makes an impact on their lives with every interaction. If you wish to have a visit from one of our Therapy dogs please click here.
Whilst he is still out in the community and providing comfort and support to both Harry and many others, he is also enjoying meeting all his other buddies joining the Bale’s Buddies team and loves helping us train them to be just like him, the perfect Therapy dog!
We wish Bale a huge Happy 5th Birthday and look forward to making lots of new memories and enhancing lives by assisting others dealing with autism and learning difficulties.
