For the majority of her life Aimee has been terrified of dogs, on days out she would not get out of the car if she could see a dog even if it was miles away the fact that she had seen it would mean that it would be virtually impossible to get her out of the car.

The distress in seeing a dog was having on Aimee was making it virtually impossible for myself or Aimee's school to take her out in the community, visiting the local park or even just walking down the street.

So In April 2013 we decided to buy a puppy, we got an eight week old male Border Terrier and called him Ben, we picked Ben as his name as Aimee sometimes does the bbbbbb bbbbbb sound that babies do when they are trying to talk, we though that it might help bring Aimee's speech on.

Getting Ben was a really tough decision as we would have to try and not get to close to him in case Aimee did not take to him and we had to give him away, the person we got Ben from was understanding and was prepared to take Ben back.

For the first few weeks Ben was penned off in the dinner room Aimee could see him and gradually got used to him being there, over the coming weeks we would bring Ben into the living room at first keeping hold of him, then slowly over time letting him walk around the room, if Aimee was on the floor playing she would jump up and stand on the couch.

After a few months Aimee was ok with Ben being in the same room as her but would still run away if Ben went near her, Ben was absolutely brilliant it was like he knew Aimee's fear, he would walk over towards her very slowly with his tail wagging slowly side to side when Aimee would get up Ben would look back at me with a sad face and slowly walk back and lie down next to my feet.

In early November Aimee allowed Ben into her space, he walked slowly across the room as Aimee was sat on the floor shouting at her laminated pictures, Ben licked her face and Aimee started laughing :)

It has been a long time coming but Ben now follows Aimee as she runs around the house, Aimee will stroke Ben and even push her feet to his mouth for him to lick.

Myself and Aimee take Ben out for walks and Aimee is now 99% more tolerant when walking near other dogs, she does not try pull and run away, The school have also commented on how good Aimee is now when they go out to the park