Empowered by Hope
You want the best possible quality of life for your child regardless of diagnosis or prognosis. Raising a child with medical complexities is often lonely, scary and overwhelming. Join two parents of amazing children with rare medical complexities, Emily K. Whiting and Ashlyn Thompson, to get help and grow with them into empowered advocates for our kids. Here you’ll find a community of support, encouragement, education and resources, equipping you to navigate your child’s medical complexities with hope. To get more personal support, connect with us directly at www.ParentEmpowermentNetwork.org.
Empowered by Hope
A Tail of Joy: Transforming Shelter Dogs into Life Saving Heroes with Medical Mutts
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What if a simple bark could bring a little holiday miracle into your life—alerting you to an impending health crisis faster than any device? In this special holiday episode of Empowered by Hope, we’re spreading the spirit of giving and hope as we explore the incredible work of Medical Mutts Service Dogs with Liz Boskovich, Director of Development. Discover how shelter dogs, once overlooked, are transformed into life-saving companions, delivering comfort, safety, and joy to families in need—just in time for the season of miracles.
We share the heartwarming story of Patch, a once-lost pup who found his purpose with a young boy named Nick, becoming not only his life-saving companion but also a treasured part of the family’s holiday memories. From detecting seizures to managing PTSD, depression, and diabetes, these remarkable dogs offer life-changing support to individuals facing complex medical needs.
Together, we unwrap the details of the application process, costs, and resources like fundraising and grants, ensuring that hope remains accessible to families everywhere. This season reminds us of the power of connection, resilience, and second chances—whether for a shelter dog or a family seeking support.
Tune in for a heartwarming message of hope, resilience, and community, and remember: miracles come in all shapes, sizes, and sometimes even with wagging tails. Don’t forget to share your own stories with us as we continue building a supportive community together.
Learn more at https://www.medicalmutts.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MedicalMutts
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/medicalmuttsservicedogs/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@medicalmutts
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To get more personal support, connect with us directly at:
https://parentempowermentnetwork.org
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Join the Parent Empowerment Network Community of Hope
Get your copy of She is Charlotte: A Mother’s Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Journey with Her Child with Medical Complexities by Emily K Whiting on Amazon
Whether you've just been blindsided by your child's diagnosis or you've been in the trenches of their complex medical needs for a while.
Speaker 1:Empowered by Hope, is here for you, though we wish you didn't know this heartache.
Speaker 2:We're so glad you found us, so together we can walk this journey in hope.
Speaker 3:Hello everyone, welcome to the Empowered by Hope podcast.
Speaker 3:It's your co-host, ashlyn and Emily, and we are both here today with, I'm just going to say, a fun resource we are excited to bring to you, and the reason I use the word fun is because we are speaking with the Director of Development, liz Boscovich, who is here today to represent Medical Mutt's Service Dogs.
Speaker 3:Represent medical mutts service dogs and you know, with us going into the holiday season, we've talked in the past on episodes about kind of holiday blues that can be present for us, right when maybe our holidays have to look a little bit different than you know. We imagined what parenting would look like with holidays, or maybe our kids have different needs that you know, shape how we experience our holidays, and so we thought this was the perfect time to bring on a resource for you that just it inspires a smile. You can't help but smile when you hear the story behind medical mutts service dogs, what they do, how they're available. So to kick us off, liz, I'm just going to ask you if you would just dive in for us today and tell us who is this, what is this organization and how did it come about what we do is something pretty unique.
Speaker 4:We go around the country rescuing shelter dogs and we train them to become medical alert service dogs for people with a myriad of disabilities PTSD, depression, seizures, epilepsy, diabetes, autism. We're also moving now into migraines and allergies, and so these dogs are trained very specifically to alert their person before an episode happens. So if you're asleep and you're a diabetic and suddenly your glucose level drops, often people sleep through their alarm, their medical alert alarm the dogs will actually wake you up and alert you. They're actually faster than the medical alerts we found. They can detect the drop in or the scent that is let off in time of an attack, an episode, even before the medical alert pieces can, so they're faster than medical devices.
Speaker 4:We have clients from all over the country. We serve everybody, including Mexico and Canada, and we are set to rescue 90 dogs this year. We graduate about 30 of them because it is a very rigorous process, and the other 60, we adopt out to really good homes. So we never, ever give up on the dog, and this organization was started by a husband and wife team, dr Jen Kittay and her husband, jack Topham, back in 2013. As a for-profit business. They started it in their home. And then, in 2019, we became a 501c3 nonprofit and we are located at 6120 Allisonville Road.
Speaker 3:Awesome, liz. Thank you so much for that introduction and I don't know, Emily, I saw you start smiling too. The fact that you all rescue shelter dogs just talk about heartwarming and I mean, my goodness, it's such a great example of hope, right Like hope is just prominent through everything that you all do. Liz, you gave some great examples of you know the different needs that your dogs are capable of meeting. One of the things that you mentioned was PTSD and thinking about our audience as you're listening to this.
Speaker 3:You know, if you have a child, I think sometimes we people will dismiss the idea of a medical support dog because you know they don't have a diagnosis. That's maybe, that isn't. You know they're not diabetic, they don't have epilepsy, they don't have autism. That's maybe that isn't. You know they're not diabetic, they don't have epilepsy, they don't have autism. But if your child has really complex medical needs, likely PTSD is a part of your story and I have seen countless times where a dog, the impact that a dog can have on your experience, your ability to navigate, you know, the healthcare journey be easier and more positive for the entire family, is just a beautiful thing. Liz, I'm curious do you have any? Is there any story maybe that you could share with us about a placement, obviously not giving any details. You know that would you know identify someone, but any feel good stories you could share.
Speaker 4:there is actually one, and, um, we've been given permission to share this, so it's so, it's perfectly okay.
Speaker 4:Um, this was about two years ago now, and a very special dog named patch, who you may have actually seen on the news his owner was killed in a hit and run, and so he was actually brought to county to the animal department because he didn't have anybody else to take care of him.
Speaker 4:Medical Mutts adopted him and trained him to be a companion service animal for a young, autistic, nonverbal Down syndrome person named Nick. Now Nick didn't really speak very much, as he was mostly nonverbal, but the minute Patch walked into the room and they saw each other for the first time, nick let out a hello doggo, and it was the beginning of a really incredible relationship that this dog has not only helped find this child's voice, but has also helped to create a beautiful family dynamic, one that they did not have in the past. Nick is much more open now. He is actually a little bit more verbal as well, but he also connects with this dog and the dog connects with him. That's the thing about medical mutts is we're not just for the dog or for the person. We're for both. We bring them together and complete the circle.
Speaker 5:That is the most amazing story. I got chills and I'm trying not to cry during a podcast.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that was a oh my gosh. Such a great story and I love, like, the power of a pet and a well-trained one right that can make the difference is just incredible, and it actually reminds me of a story we told back at the gala last year, Ashlyn and we won't go into details now, but there's a previous podcast, if you want to look back in May or June of last year, of 2023, where we talked about a horse and a young man and the incredible bond that was created there and the difference that made so. It's just amazing. Well, I'm afraid to go to your website because I'll probably end up adopting a dog.
Speaker 4:Speaking of which, we have adoptions every second and fourth Saturday of the month, including this Saturday, from 10 to noon here at the location. And our dogs are on our website. Oh, that is amazing.
Speaker 5:I was being facetious. I really am going to go to your website and, for those who are interested, how do they? You know, I guess, first off, who would you say, like okay, to our listeners? Here's the people that you know you we serve. I think you already listed that a little bit, but um would love to hear, like do I qualify, you know? And then, how do we, how do we access a dog for our family and how do we find one that fits us? Sorry, that was a lot of questions.
Speaker 4:No, that's a great, and I can start by saying, first and foremost, anybody from anywhere can apply. It's absolutely open to any and all. We do need an actual diagnosis from a doctor whether it's PTSD. It doesn't have to be physical. That's the other thing that people get tripped up on. They say, well, my disability isn't physical, that's okay.
Speaker 4:The vast majority of the dogs we placed last year were for psychological needs, so that's a huge component of what we do and why we do it. So they do have to qualify by sending in a diagnosis and then there's a pretty lengthy application process. But we've got to make sure that this is the right person and then we can try and get the right dog. It's all about the personality, it's all about the availability, but it is also about the connection that they have between each other. But it is also about the connection that they have between each other. So once you go through the interviews, we do have our intake coordinator, melissa Morris. She'll do an interview along with our head trainer, ava Rudisil, and if you qualify, then you get put on our waiting list. Currently, we have an 8 to 12-month waiting list right now, but that's the time where you can fundraise to help start to, you know, be able to acquire an animal.
Speaker 4:It costs us here at Medical Mutts $25,000 to $30,000 per animal to train, to feed, to medicate, to fix. We do all of that. We microchip, we do everything, and it costs our clients about $17,000 for a program. We try to mitigate that cost as much as possible with fundraising efforts, with grants, with, you know, individual donations and things like that. We try to bring that down to sort of create a non-barrier for people to make sure that because $17,000 is still a lot of money, but at the same time if they have a year to fundraise, then they actually have a good platform in which to do it on and we've seen a really big success rate with that.
Speaker 4:So once that happens, then you come in, you send us a swab of before or after you've had an episode, whatever that may be. You take a cotton ball and swab yourself and breathe on it, send that into us and then we will start to train the animal with your particular scent. Now we use a whole bunch of different scents at first to get them used to every single one, to discriminate which one they're going to need to actually alert for. And that's when we really start to hone in on that one particular scent, that one particular disability for that one particular person. And then you are paired.
Speaker 3:That's amazing. Wow, liz, I think it's important. Can you help our listeners differentiate between a service dog, like you all train somebody who might be new to this and here's the price. And it's like, oh my gosh, that's insane. I can't even fathom, and I think there's a lot of misconceptions around right now around a comp, an emotional comfort dog, right when people are going in, they're getting the vest and they're just having their doctor write a note and then, bam, their, their family pet, whether or not it is actually a trained dog, cause I've seen lots in places that look like the dog needed more comfort and support than the person was getting. Right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:So that's a great question. Yeah, we do. There is a big differentiation. All dogs can be therapy lovey dogs, so we look at it that way. But a medical alert service dog is one that is specifically trained to help save somebody's life. They are good in public. They do not get spooked or scared in public. They stay focused. They never leave the person's side.
Speaker 4:One of our real requirements for our dogs is that it be a Velcro dog. You go up to go to the bathroom. The take them to airports. We take them to different organizations that allow us in, like Target and Barnes and Noble and things like that. They are trained to be there for their human being, for that specific disability. Those are real medical alert service dogs. You can't just slap a vest on a dog and say, oh, it's a service dog because it actually hasn't been trained. We do have a lot of competitors out there who will for $500, get you a vest and write you a piece of paper. But that doesn't mean your dog's a medical alert service dog or a true service dog. To begin with, it does have to go through a very intense form of training into officially graduated program, right.
Speaker 5:Yep Exactly.
Speaker 1:Very different.
Speaker 5:Special need. Yeah, what a special need that is critical, that your organization is filling. That's amazing.
Speaker 3:Thank you on whenever I see somebody's new dog I haven't met before because I love that, but I think it's really important to go back to how you you shared like one of the truly beautiful moments was that it allowed a child to connect with another living being in a way that maybe the child hadn't been able to connect with other people, and that's something that I think is, you know, depending on what your journey is, what you're facing with your child.
Speaker 3:I think that that is a really untapped resource that, like you said, not only did it help him become somewhat more verbal, but just giving your child the ability to connect with somebody at that level, to open up a different part of themselves and, you know, utilize more of their emotions and just truly feel that that love and that safety and connection is something that I can only imagine how much it benefits the entire family. That the dog is true. It's not just for your child, that it impacts your whole family. It helps your you know marriage, it helps your you know the siblings you know be involved. So one question I have I'm just trying to think through some of the things that people you know that I've heard other people assume. So, like you said, dog needs to be a Velcro dog, right, but how will these dogs, you know, interact with the rest of the family? Right, typically.
Speaker 4:So that's a great question they are. We try to when we go through the whole interview process to make sure that there is family support for this person, because this is a lot to take on. This is an animal that they need to be able to feed, to take care of, to of, to afford medication, things like that. So we got to make sure that the dog is going into a good home and we often say family support is really critical to us. Unfortunately, some people don't have that, but those that do, we encourage that when they come to see us to meet their actual dog, they stay with us for 10 days so the human can be trained on all the things that we've trained the dog to do as well, so that they know how to interact and to say, hey, this is happening and the dog can get used to them.
Speaker 4:A lot of times they bring many family members, people that they live with, in order to make sure that that animal is compatible. Now, if something does happen where the animal is simply not compatible, we will take the dog back and we will repair you with a different dog at no extra cost. We are committed to the client, but also to make sure that it's right for the dog as well. So we have to do that too. Yeah, Perfect and uh, and so that's you know we. We encourage people to come out with their families if they can, to make sure that this is a good match and a good situation.
Speaker 3:I love that. I just find this I went through the experience of we started down the service dog experience for my dad who had had a stroke and unfortunately my dad passed away before the dog's training was complete. My dad who had had a stroke and unfortunately my dad passed away before the dog's training was complete. But the experience that we had up to that point and the limited interactions my dad did have with the dog honestly are are some of the best memories I have at the end of my dad's life and I'm forever grateful for those. So it feels really wonderful to be able to share this resource with families and, you know, create an opportunity for another outlet of hope is kind of how I see this. Just, you know, another way to improve upon quality of life for your whole family.
Speaker 4:Absolutely what a beautiful thing Improving the quality of life for your child or whoever has this medical alert service dog, but for the entire family that comes into interaction with this person and the dog as well, it's a life changer. These dogs are not only life-saving, but they're life-changing as well.
Speaker 3:That's a good tagline.
Speaker 5:Liz, we're so grateful for your time. I love the uniqueness of this podcast topic and I love the joy that it brings as we go into the holiday season. Even if it's not something that you as a listener think oh, you know, this is for my family either way it's still so heartwarming to know that there are amazing people out there doing this for families who can tap into and want to and need to tap into this service, and I'm sure there's going to be listeners who really find this to be very helpful information too. So thank you, liz, for your time and can't wait to go check out your website.
Speaker 4:Thank, you so?
Speaker 5:much yeah. I was just going to say speaking of tell the listeners where to go to learn more and how to connect.
Speaker 4:Absolutely, it's wwwmedicalmutsorg.
Speaker 3:We will put that in the show notes and for anybody who's interested, liz, I'll have you, give me the information. We don't have to talk about it on here because we're limited on time today, but I know, for people who are listening to this and maybe they're nearby or want to get involved in supporting your organization, I know there's some really cool ways to help expand your mission, so we'll be sure to link to those as well. But with that, everybody, thank you so much for listening and be sure and share this, because I mean, nobody is going to hear the story about Nick and Patch and not have a big giant smile on their face. So let's share it and let's help medical mutt service dogs raise their awareness and get in front of more families they can help. So thanks everyone, take care, thank you.
Speaker 2:You are capable, you are equipped and you are not alone. Together, we can do hard things for our children.
Speaker 1:If this episode connected with you and you want to hear more, be sure to hit the subscribe button.
Speaker 2:We would also love to learn about your personal journey and how we can support you.
Speaker 1:Reach out to us at contact at charlotteshopefoundationorg.
Speaker 2:And last but not least, if you know of someone who could benefit from this podcast, please share least. If you know of someone who could benefit from this podcast, please share when hope is bound.
