A Bel Air family hopes a service dog will give their autistic son — and them — a helping hand in the outside world.

“It’s very, very difficult to take our son places and be a family, to go out to the mall or to any store,” said Jennifer Austin, Caleb’s mother.

“He’s too big to sit in a stroller or in the shopping cart, and he doesn’t like having his hand held.”

The tether that attaches Caleb to Abby, the 1-year-old Labrador-poodle mix known as a “labradoodle,” came in handy for the first time Saturday on an outing to Target.

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“Just the short walk from there to the car was a great success,” she said. “Because if I or [Caleb’s father] Paul don’t have his hand, he’s a ‘flight risk.’ ”

Caleb, 7, and his family welcomed Abby to their home Friday after she was flown from a breeder in Australia and trained for the past six months to be his constant companion.

Paul Austin, pastor at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Joppa, helped raise more than $5,000 from family, friends and labradoodle breeders to buy and train her.

The Centers for Disease Control estimated in February that autism affects about one in every 150 8-year-old children in the United States.

Caleb’s symptoms started to manifest when he was 12 to 15 months old.

Trainer Mary Riddle Walker, a service dog specialist from North Carolina, said she hoped the dog would help Caleb learn the boundaries of where he can go and help search for him should he ever get lost.

Jennifer Austin also said she hoped the dog would be a bridge between Caleb and people who stop to pet and play with her, encouraging him to interact more with others.

“She’s not like many service dogs, who aren’t meant to be approached,” she said.

However, the family remains unsure of how people will react to the dog accompanying them everywhere on family outings.

Abby will wear a vest identifying her as a service dog, but Jennifer said she plans to carry documentation proving that Abby, under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, can legally be taken to places dogs would not normally be allowed.

Walker said she hoped that with greater public awareness, more autistic children like Caleb could take advantage of service dogs.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com