A Perthshire family hope to use the soothing power of man’s best friend to unlock the world of their disabled son.
Ian and Margaret Smith, of Doune, have launched an appeal to raise the £3,000 needed to buy their disabled son Toby a trained companion dog.
The seven-year-old has issues with communicating and leaving the house and his parents hope the comfort and joy he feels in the company of dogs can transform his life.
Margaret said: “Toby lives in a world very different to the rest of his siblings. He struggles with the spoken word and needs a high level of support to be understood.
“He has learning disability, complex neurodevelopmental disorders and developmental attention difficulties.
“We feel there is also autism and have been told that there are autistic traits, which we are now involved in getting investigated.
“Toby is a joy to us but at times he will not even leave the house and finds it difficult to settle at night. As a parent, it’s difficult to see your child stay indoors on a nice day when (his) other siblings are outside. We so want him to have a happy life at home, with a dog as his companion and friend. We know how Toby reacts to dogs. He lights up whenever he sees them.
“We hope a dog will encourage him to go outside and play like his siblings.”
The family visited Charlie Thorburn at Mordor Gundogs training and breeding centre, where they met the dogs they hope could help change Toby’s life.
Margaret added: “We want Toby’s anxiety to reduce and for him to be more relaxed. We want to unlock a part of him that none of us can manage.
“When we saw him with Charlie’s gun dogs recently our hearts just melted. Toby talks of nothing else since.
“Charlie has many years’ experience of training gun dogs and dogs for children who have autism. As a family of 10, we just cannot afford to pay Charlie for a dog and for the training required.”
To donate visit crowdfunding.justgiving.com/Ian-Smith-1.