Darwin student Zach Giles says service dog-in-training, Bobbi, is life-changing
A rescue pup turned service dog has been a life-changer for one Darwin student and his family. Here’s how she lends a paw to her handler.
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“She gives me a lot of confidence.”
Bobbi the Kelpie-cross has been life-changing for Zach Giles and his family.
In just a few short months, the seven-month-old service dog-in-training has learned to help Zach with his anxiety and autism.
“She has an intuitive sense for when I’m stressed out or anxious, because she can hear my heartbeat, and she knows that I need to be helped to calm down,” he said.
“She’ll immediately stop listening to instructions I give her and if it gets really bad, she’ll tell me verbally – she’ll make a noise at me, maybe growl.
“(She’ll) even jump towards me to get me to sit down and then she’ll come onto my lap.”
The year 12 student said Bobbi made day-to-day challenges easier, which in turn made school manageable.
Mum Maddie Evans said she’d been on the hunt for an autism assistance dog when she came across Heart Dogs NT.
Ms Evans said the organisation helped her and her family adopt Kelpie through Paws Darwin and begin her training right away.
She said Zach’s younger brother Oscar had been in the hospital for six weeks at the start of Term 3 – a situation that under different circumstances, would have kept Zach out of class as well.
“He’d be too anxious … and it can get quite severe to the point where he has physical symptoms,” Ms Evans said.
“Usually in a situation like that, he wouldn’t be able to go to school, but he was able to attend.
“For the time that we were in hospital, I think he had one day off.”
Ms Evans said she had been searching for an Autism Assistance dog when she came across Heart Dogs NT.
She said she and Zach were able to train Bobbi themselves with the help of the organisation’s weekend training sessions.
“We’ve been training her since June, and she’s already come a long way, “ she said.
“In the next few months, we’ll probably start teaching her the tasks that we want her to learn specifically.”
When Bobbi is fully licensed as a service dog, the family hopes she’ll support Zach when he graduates high school and begins his studies for a Certificate IV in Music.
Heart Dogs NT is a recipient of the Petstock Foundation’s Hometown Heroes initiative.
Senior trainer Lisa Hansen said it was not uncommon for service dogs to be outside vulnerable people’s financial ability.
“Heart Dogs NT works with individuals to support them to have the life changing access to these dogs,” she said.
“We are grateful that the Petstock Foundation has found our mission worthy of support.
“It will make a huge difference to the lives of people in need.
“Thank you to everyone who is able to donate to Hometown Heroes.”
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Originally published as Darwin student Zach Giles says service dog-in-training, Bobbi, is life-changing
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