For Hayley Martin of Sydney, Australia, her dog Marley is more than a pet. He’s her lifeline!
Hayley has autism and often experiences sensory overload and panic attacks. Those moments used to be debilitating, but now her service dog has turned her life around!
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Hayley first met Marley in May 2018. Over the following year, the pup made an incredible impact on her mental health and overall well-being.
“This dog has saved my life,” she wrote in 2019. “He has become my service dog. He has made me more independent. Has given me so much of my life back.”
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One of the ways Marley does this is by spotting panic attacks and soothing Hayley so she doesn’t get hurt.
To raise awareness, Hayley shared a powerful video of one of these interactions on the Dogspotting Society Facebook page.
In it, we see Hayley growing more and more distressed. She begins scratching and hitting her legs in an attempt to calm herself down, and Marley sets his paw over her hand.
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Hayley pushes his paw away over and over again, but her sweet dog calmly repeats the action each time.
Finally, he jumps onto her lap for a “forced hug” and licks away her tears. While she’s still upset, she begins to settle down and wraps her arms around her loyal friend.
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“So grateful to have this boy every single day,” she wrote. “This was harder to upload, and it’s a bit more severe than the others. But I wanna show people that dogs can help in great ways.”
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Her bravery was met with a beautiful outpouring of support!
 
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We’re so happy Hayley has Marley to help her weather all of life’s storms. Here’s to many more years of this wonderful partnership! If you’re interested in learning more, you can keep up with both of them on Instagram.
Watch Marley come to the rescue in the video below, and share this amazing example of a service dog in action!
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