Service Dog Training Day Six

I'm at the store with Nick, just looking at at an item on the rack for a few seconds. Then I turn around, and he's gone. Panic kicks in. My heart racing, I run down the isles looking for him.

This has happened, more than once. Fortunately, we've always found him, but after today, we have some help, and a lot less panic to face. We went back to the mall to day and practiced tracking in a department store. One of us hid in the store with Nick, while the other, with guidance from a trainer, took Red on a track through the store to find Nick. Using a much shorter leash than an outdoor track, so we don't tangle up other shoppers, Red found Nick in about 45 seconds with each track we practiced.

Today we also learned different commands through which Red can help Nick with behavioral and sensory issues. In the first photo on the right, John is pretending to have what could be a crying or anger fit: what we would call a meltdown. Red intervenes with a "nuzzle" to distract him from this behavior.

In the pictures below, we are practicing the "over" command. Here we tell Red to stand over us and then go down on any part of the body where deep pressure is needed. Nick, like almost all children with autism, has a sensory integration disorder. These means that his way of sensing what is going on around him is distorted. One of the things that calms him is deep pressure. When Nick is overstimulated, hyperactive or frustrated we can use this "over" command to help calm him. At this point, Nick is pretty skittish with Red, just running up to him now and then to touch or pet him, so this command is something that we will have to work on over time. As their bond builds, Nick will be more trusting of Red to let him do this.

We also learned how to teach Red to respond to certain behaviors of Nick's, so that Nick can be corrected, or we can be alerted to intervene. For instance, Nick steals food from the fridge a lot. By teaching Red to "touch" (put a paw up on Nick to stop him) and "bark" (to alert us) whenever Nick opens the fridge, Red is doing what he can to stop Nick and let us know that Nick is getting into trouble. Again, we will be successful with this once the bond builds (a process that takes several months) between Nick and Red, and Red is more observant of what Nick is doing.