Hi guys (me again, sorry!) A couple of things are worrying me about having Bob. 1. My son has mild autism (he's 4yo) and absolutely adores Bob, but he is extremely hyper around him. He jumps, squeals, runs around etc.. I'm sure this is pretty normal behaviour for a small child who is experiencing a puppy for the first time in their lives. I think it's important that he gets time to play with Bob (before school and after school) for short periods. But I wondered is there anything that I need to be aware of? Any certain behaviours that could cause Bob to become aggressive perhaps? 2. Our house is an old Victorian building and there are steps up and down from each room into the next - some 2, some 3 and some 4 steps. We are keeping Bob on our ground floor (kitchen, dining room, play room) for the moment but there are still steps up and down going into each room. Bob is managing to get up the steps OK.. but every now and then he'll just throw himself back down them! I'm a bit worried he's going to damage his joints! Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions? Lou x
Re: A couple of issues/worries... Hi Lou I don't have any experience of the autism but otbers on the forum do. A tip I remember js teaching a child to be "a tree" and be tall and stand still "or a rock" curling up and being still, if a puppy is getting a bit nippy with a child. Trees are handy for adults too. Might be a fun game to teach. Also making a rule about food. No food out the kitchen.....or in puppy area etc. Reduces the temptation of puppy to jump. Good to establish as not so much fun as a loony toddler or teen dog. As far as the steps go, have they got something non slip on them? Even a cut up magic mat strip? Might help. Otberwise its the baby gates. Maybe you could teach pup one step at a time with the clicker? Hope you get some otber ideas.
Re: A couple of issues/worries... Hi there, any young child needs to be constantly supervised around young pups. They will get bitten and hurt through no malice at all from the dog. Any child that is noisy and lively around a pup will give that pup a signal to play and when the pup is so young it can end in tears. There are lots of old threads about this on here which are really worth a read. At this age Bob wont be aggressive just playful. I have 6 year old twin boys who can be silly/noisy but do have some level of understanding that Meg is young and learning. They accepted that there were many times I would not let them pet her. Really at that age unless Meg was pretty calm and tired I did not let them get too close, cuddle fuss etc. Now she is well past that stage at 8 months the nips have stopped and Meg and boys have a great close relationship. I would not push play times at specific times unless your pup has had a run around and you are with them. They will be fantastic buddies together once Bob has got a little older. I guess I am trying to say take your time and they will have a close relationship. It would be awful if your son got an accidental nip and then that can take ages to get over. Regarding stairs I am sure others here will be more expert than me. I have avoided all stairs with my pups and put up ramps if it is totally unavoidable. I just want to do the best for their joints as I can. Have fun Emma and Meg
Re: A couple of issues/worries... Could you put little temporary intermediate steps in between if your steps are high? We put a row of bricks below an outside step to help Mira when she was tiny, but she still seemed to prefer launching herself off : We did manage to train her to use them though
Re: A couple of issues/worries... I work with a lot of autistic children. Harley has met several of them out on walks. I am very strict on letting them know the main 'do's and dont's - I only pick 2 of each to keep it simple. If either of them gets too excited we play 'trees' which means stand perfectly still until the pup sits calmly. I use no screaming around the pup and explain they might get scared. I did take a brush with me and let them brush her which helped them both calm down. Hope this helps a bit
Re: A couple of issues/worries... Hi. my 5 year old daughter is extremely autistic, she gets on well wit Bouncer but sometimes completely ignores him which im sure he finds upsetting. But he still gives it the best he can. If you want to chat, please PM me & we can compare notes rather than doing it in public (sorry guys but autism is a sticky subject & can be misunderstood).
Re: A couple of issues/worries... Hi Lou, I have a son with High Finctioning Autism who is now 17 years old and I have also had the pleasure of working with pre-school Autistic children. My advice would be to take 2 photos of Bob one with a few of his toys, the second with Bob and NO toys and a Red cross through it, laminate them if you can. I would show your son the first picture with toys as his indicator and tell him "Bob play time" say "quietly" using your finger to your mouth to confirm this to him visually or you could take another photo showing this, let them play just for a few minutes, give your son a toy to throw to Bob, when playtime is over put that photo away and immediately show him the photo with Bob and no toys, tell him "Bob play time finished" or whatever words your son undertands. I found that a visual indicator helps much more than a verbal alone. As you son becomes able to play more quietly with Bob you can of course increase the time they spend together playing. If you decide to give this a go I really hope it works. I agree that Autisim is misunderstood but unless we discuss it things won't change for our children xx
Re: A couple of issues/worries... Avoid steps. I built a ramp for just going up and down the step to the garden. Can you make a couple of ramps? I don't know much about autism but have taught children with it. I learnt that clear rules and instructions worked the best. I would have clear rules with all children though.
Re: A couple of issues/worries... Thank you so much for all your replies. This are the steps in the kitchen. I honestly don't think we can do anything about them as we have a small galley kitchen and we are in and out the whole time with food. I don't want my little boy negotiating a stair-gate or ramp if he's carrying food. But we will try this weekend to ramp the larger steps in the garden I think or at least make the steps shallower somehow. They are much deeper and I think could do more damage. With regards my little boy and Bob, I'm just going to have to ensure that they are NEVER on their own together. I did try the tree game yesterday but my son was too excited to stand still. He did the tree arms but was still running about. Never seen a tree run before..maybe he was being an ENT lol! I will persevere with trying to ensure he is calm. We don't generally use picture cards although he does respond well to visual cues like the time on a clock... So it may be worth looking into that actually. Thank you again. Lou x
Re: A couple of issues/worries... No help with the child dog combo but stairs are often unavoidable, it's first thing we teach as living in a flat they either make it up and down on their own or cannot live with us. All have managed quite quickly, and on a lead they don't go down too quickly or get hurt. It's great I am sure if you can avoid steps but I would worry if you need to get a train or onto a bus etc if you don't teach good stairs protocol.
