Getting closer to a therapy dog
In a year marked by a pandemic and a divided political system, it's not surprising we've had to wait longer for things. We waited for restaurants to slowly open up to limited capacity. We waited to declare a presidential winner. A lot of us are still waiting for COVID-19 vaccinations.
So it's no surprise Matt Thuman has to wait six more months before his daughter, Taryn, gets her service dog.
Taryn, a kindergartner at Wapakoneta Elementary, has apraxia.
"She's nonverbal," Thuman said. "Which means there's a delay from the brain to the mouth on how to form… words."
Taryn also has low tone, meaning she has poor balance.
"She can fall over at any moment just by turning her head slightly," he said. "She can fall over by putting different types of weight on her."
Those extra weights can include school books, which could present a challenge for her as she progresses through school and becomes saddled with more and more texts.
That's a big reason why Matt and Stephanie, his wife, decided to get Taryn a service dog: to carry her backpack.
Besides books, the dog will be able to open doors through the push button and provide emotional support.
The Thuman's didn't wait long to get on a list after deciding their daughter needed one.
"It was probably a month or two," he said.
Thuman started the process of getting a service dog two years ago, although he admitted he didn't know much about them at the time. But after a school representative contacted his family about someone who wished to raise money for the dog, he was ready to try one.
"At the end of 2019 we went to a basketball game and… [Delani Harter] was able to raise money for us," he said.
That donation - from someone the family didn't know - kicked off the process. The family was able to raise
the required $17,000 without once mentioning it to anyone. And they did it in six weeks.
They also had to prove she needed the dog, which required doctor's notes.
Currently, Thuman's family is doing video training, something Matt started roughly a month ago. These videos require Matt and Stephanie to film Taryn in places she frequents, including home, church, a dance studio, school, youth groups and therapies.
According to Thuman, these videos create a background of Taryn to help the dog's trainer train the dog for her specific situations. These situations could include loud music or running around.
"Each dog is trained for one person and one person only," he said. "… They don't want the dog to go into the dance class where there's loud music and freak out."
Next month, the Thuman's will submit the video to 4 Paws for Ability, a company that provides service animals for children and veterans located in Xenia.
Then they'll wait until mid-august to find out the name of Taryn's new dog, the type of dog it is and anything else they'll need to bring with them before the nine days of classes start August 21.
"Taryn will have to miss that very first week of school," he said.
Thuman didn't see it being an issue.
"They have been cooperative throughout this… entire process," he said.
Currently, Taryn is in speech therapy four days per week at Wapak Elementary, every other week at St. Rita's Outpatient in Lima, and she works with a speech pathologist from Columbus.
The Thuman's are optimistic that Taryn will eventually overcome her speech issues.