Autism and New Puppy! - Page 3

dodrop82 · 02-09-2013, 09:42 PM

I work in a Waiver home...for higher functioning individuals with disabilities. Two individuals live in the home I work. One has MR and autism, and loves cats, and has a pet cat. The other has MR and various other diagnosis, and prefers dogs (He had one when he first came to our agency, but he didn't do well at caring for it, so it was rehomed.) Anyway, I have taken Yogi and Boo to visit them several times, to visit the guys, and play with the cat. Yogi was very well socialized as a pup, as we got her in the summer, and exposed her to everything, everyone, all sounds, all circumstances, and she's very unreactive because of this. Boo, on the otherhand, was brought home during the winter months, and wasn't socialized like Yogi was, and hence...she barks at everything. So when I've taken the girls to work with me, and Boo plays with the cat, she barks and barks and barks...and my guy with autism does not like it and will always slam his bedroom door shut when Boo's doing her barking thing! So, altho it is alway so important to the pup's well being, to be properly socialized...I think it's doubley important in this situation, to get your puppy socialized to everything you can!!! Good luck, and keep us posted how it's going!

davetgabby · 02-09-2013, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dodrop82

I work in a Waiver home...for higher functioning individuals with disabilities. Two individuals live in the home I work. One has MR and autism, and loves cats, and has a pet cat. The other has MR and various other diagnosis, and prefers dogs (He had one when he first came to our agency, but he didn't do well at caring for it, so it was rehomed.) Anyway, I have taken Yogi and Boo to visit them several times, to visit the guys, and play with the cat. Yogi was very well socialized as a pup, as we got her in the summer, and exposed her to everything, everyone, all sounds, all circumstances, and she's very unreactive because of this. Boo, on the otherhand, was brought home during the winter months, and wasn't socialized like Yogi was, and hence...she barks at everything. So when I've taken the girls to work with me, and Boo plays with the cat, she barks and barks and barks...and my guy with autism does not like it and will always slam his bedroom door shut when Boo's doing her barking thing! So, altho it is alway so important to the pup's well being, to be properly socialized...I think it's doubley important in this situation, to get your puppy socialized to everything you can!!! Good luck, and keep us posted how it's going!

Right on Stacey and good for you.

Odieo · 02-09-2013, 10:45 PM

Thanks all for your valuable input I'm taking notes. The plan is to have him interact with puppy as much as he wants and not push him too much. Make sure he is not rough with the puppy and watch both of them like a hawk and never to leave either kid alone with the puppy. Yes and planning on big puppy socialization I have started to invite families ( one at time) to come and spend time with Odieo next weekend. We have been visiting Odieo every week and we can tell he is very well socialized. We went today and he was so playful with his new chew toys and does not bark ( still haven't heard him bark, others in the litter do some barking). He did not try to chew/ bite us the whole time we were there. He was content chewing his toys and playing with us. I hope it stays that way.

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Ewokpup · 02-12-2013, 04:19 PM

I have aspergers...it's not as 'noticeable' as when I was younger and it can be trickier to recognize in girls, so I wasn't actually formally diagnosed until I was an adult.

Feel free to PM me..,I was going to send you one but couldn't figure out how to do that...viewing the forum on an iPhone isn't the easiest.

I have some resources out there I will have to dig up.

Congrats on the dog! Adorble puppies, in my opinion, are great for social interaction. No one notices if you don't make much eye contact when there's a cute pup to focus on. Plus there is a pretty standard 'small talk' when talking about a dog.

Ewokpup · 02-12-2013, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Odieo

Thanks all for your valuable input I'm taking notes. The plan is to have him interact with puppy as much as he wants and not push him too much. Make sure he is not rough with the puppy and watch both of them like a hawk and never to leave either kid alone with the puppy. Yes and planning on big puppy socialization I have started to invite families ( one at time) to come and spend time with Odieo next weekend. We have been visiting Odieo every week and we can tell he is very well socialized. We went today and he was so playful with his new chew toys and does not bark ( still haven't heard him bark, others in the litter do some barking). He did not try to chew/ bite us the whole time we were there. He was content chewing his toys and playing with us. I hope it stays that way.

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That's good to hear he isn't too vocal. Bama wasn't at first but she is a bit more talkative now. I'm rather sensitive to sounds...Bama actually does better with vacuum cleaner noise than me. ;-)

As far as learning proper puppy interactions, have you looked into dog themed social stories? I found one online, not sure if it is useful at all...

http://209.197.91.184/socialstories/ss0001.html

Ewokpup · 02-12-2013, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Odieo

Yes mine is a big on visuals that is a great idea I will make some visual charts and some social stories on puppies for him.

Yep, I plan to implement every bit of ABA on the puppy!! When we were doing therapies with my son I always thought it was very close to dog training. Now that I have 6 yrs of experience I plan to use all of it on the puppy :-)

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I totally use ABA with Bama when I can. I was doing an internship years ago for a program that was very ABA based and so poor Miss Yorkie got caught up in my ABA enthusiasm. ;-) 'want treat? You need good sitting'. 'You need nice paws and quiet mouth'.

Odieo · 02-13-2013, 05:04 AM

Thanks all for your advise. Ewokpup I will send you a PM and thanks for the link with the story.

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sprorchid · 02-13-2013, 10:06 PM

Hey -
I'm a speech therapist in the public schools. elementary is my current site, and the school houses the mod-severe autism special day classes (SDCs). I have a 1/2 hav, 1/2 shih tzu now 3 yrs old, and he's a certified therapy dog, and comes to work with me to do push-in whole class, or in the case of the SDC (only 12 students per class), small group push-in to assist and give the student's opprotunities to practice skills learned via discrete trials, basically an opprotunity to generalize and master skills.

I think dogs in general, whether it be a dog bred and trained to be a service dog for a child with autism, or my Ollie that I use to generalize language skills, dogs are an invaluable tool, not just to child with a specific diagnosis, but for all students.

good stuff. feel free to PM me, if you comments or questions.

Odieo · 03-16-2013, 06:40 PM

It's been 4 weeks since got Odeo home and my younger one (Autistic) has been doing OK. He hates it when Odeo tries to lick him and nipping is a big no-no. He likes the chase game and will pet Odeo when I hold him up. Today's amazing weather helped in lot of bonding. They both took a walk...and Odeo did great on leash with him. Both of them enjoyed it very well puppy was so tired he had to take a long nap afterwards.

ETA Pics

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morriscsps · 03-17-2013, 09:08 AM

Awww... You have a couple of cuties there.