Tia’s Story

I have suffered from generalized anxiety and Asperger’s and didn’t think college would be a goal that I could easily attain.

After getting and training my service dog Beethoven, I am now in my third year of college, thanks to Carmel Mooney.

Carmel coached me through the process of getting the right dog through temperament testing, socializing it, and then task training it to assist me with my challenges. We are part of a group of graduated service dogs that Carmel has trained and helped people train themselves. Belonging to this group of other service dog owners, has helped me overcome some of my social deficits and it keeps Beethoven on his toes as well, especially when we do drills and outings with the other families and their dogs. We have both made several friends in the group and I cannot tell you how thankful I am for Beethoven. I can’t wait until he crosses the stage with me at my college graduation later this year.