Barking and Chewing

Barking and chewing, chewing and barking.  This is what Kenzie has wanted to do lately, chew and bark.  She’s chewed everything so much that she has sore spots around the outside edges of her mouth.  No more raw hides for you, Kenzie.

There is good news on noise.  We live in a series of 2 duplexes and all 4 back doors are along a back walkway.  Kenzie has finally managed to understand that other people live in those other houses; the walkway is not solely for our use.  One day this week we met all three of the other households on this walkway.  All of them have kids. Kenzie didn’t bark at any of them.  I am sure she’ll bark again another day but still – it’s a huge improvement.

Because Kenzie didn’t seem to get what stand meant and she was fuzzy on the difference in ‘sit’ and ‘lie down’, we spent a lot of time this week drilling for those commands.  We’ve also been working on getting into the right position for heel and side and switching from one to the other, back up, roll and pulling.  Pulling is actually ‘tug’ so I have to get it into my brain to use the right command.  Kenzie LOVES to pull.  So we have been throwing her favorite rope around doorknobs, the fridge handle, drawers, an office chair with wheels.  (That last one can provide hours of entertainment.)  She can reliably turn on the light switch and push the easy button.  Turning off the light switch sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t.  She doesn’t always get the pedestrian crosswalk buttons but she tries and sometimes lucks out.

A challenge with Kenzie is to not make it too hard or be too stingy with the treats.  When she gets frustrated first she barks, then she loses interest and gives up, or flops down on the floor and acts like that was the command you gave.  ‘If all else fails, lie down,’ seems to be her motto.

Kenzie tries to be helpful when I am trying to do chores.  We have a special decorated broom with ribbons on it, but brooms in general are appealing to her as chew toys.  When I sweep the house Kenzie usually ‘helps’ for the first room and a half.  This time I decided to make it a game of practicing ‘stay’ in different situations.  She broke a few times but I caught her right away and put her back, moving her from room to room with me.  The living room was particularly challenging because the armchair beside her was moved away, other furniture moved towards her and then I had to move all of her toys.  Lots of challenges without continuous eye contact and I even left the room briefly a couple of times.  Superstar!

And here is a picture of Kenzie with the beautiful Idenn, her great aunt who is 5 yrs old and also a blue merle smooth collie.  Kenzie is on the left.  Idenn has got 10 lbs on Kenzie and a bit of height.  Her face is quite different from Kenzie’s and her coat is shorter.

I saw a newspaper article online this week, about a little girl in Edmonton who has autism and a service dog.  She and her dog were kicked out of a store twice.  Apparently something went awry in the staff training somewhere.  It’s just heart breaking to hear about that, especially for a child.

But then I have a confession to make.  I think I am fairly knowledgeable about different disabilities and disability issues.  But I had to ask Ryan a couple of weeks ago and then google this week: what exactly does a service animal do for a child with autism?  What about a person with a developmental delay or a psychiatric condition?  This seems important to know since WestCoast generally doesn’t train for hearing or guide dogs, but for their dogs to assist a person with mobility, developmental, psychiatric, mental health, etc….

So here is what I think I have learned about service dogs for people with autism.   The dog allows the person to have more successful interactions with the world.  It can alert them to repetitive behaviours that may need to be managed.  It can interfere with repetitive behaviours that are dangerous.  It can distract them from something they are overly focused on or bring their attention to the thing to which they need to pay attention (the phone or a fire alarm).  It can soothe them when they are feeling stress which helps to minimize symptoms.  It allows them something continuous, reliable and comforting to focus on in unfamiliar situations.  And it provides a bridge for successful social interactions with other children especially.

As I said, this is what I learned today and its mostly internet info so not the highest rated, most reliable sources, but I think i/you got the picture.  However, I may not have every detail exactly right.  Don’t take my word for it; go google it yourself!  And send me a comment to tell me what I need to know.

A light goes on

Kenzie is 7 months old now and she was actually of assistance!  Other than walking and scooting around, so far most of the training has been games and set up situations.  But a real situation requiring assistance came up!  Kenzie and I had been out to an appointment.  I had loaded us all into the car and settled myself into the drivers seat only to find that I was missing the car keys.  They were in the back beside Kenzie.  So I told her ‘get my keys!’ and she nosed them once or twice and then picked them up.  I told her ‘bring them to me, in my hand’, and sure enough she reached forward and dropped them into my hand.  Actually assistance.  It seems like a small thing.  But it is the first. 

We have been working hard on the issues Kenzie has with children, barking and rushing towards them.  Kenzie and I have spent time lurking around the local schools and daycares, sometimes just watching sometimes playing ourselves, always outside the fence.  

And then we had the BIG practices of 2 large family events this weekend.  Thanksgiving at a house with 5 children, from ages 4 months to 4 years, 4 of them were mobile.  Kenzie was pretty good considering it was a very very long time.  We broke up the time by giving her breaks and play outside, and we mostly let her sit removed from the crowd when inside, with shorter times sitting in the crowd.  The culmination and biggest challenge came at the end : a glow-in-the-dark party.  The kids took out a bunch of glow sticks and bracelets, turned out the lights, put on music and started jumping, spinning, and swinging the sticks around.  And Kenzie was GREAT!  She just stayed where she was and watched even when they were right beside her. 

The second events was even crazier, a birthday for a 1-yr old, with about 10 small kids (all under 5), more adults, and another dog.  It was planned for outside but with rain we all had to be inside; it was described as human sardines.  We kept Kenz in a side area off the main room where all the kids were.  She was reasonably well behaved.  Of course, both these events required V or I to be sitting with Kenz and holding her leash and reminding her to lay down and be quiet.  (And telling her how great she is.)

And today we graduated to being inside the schoolyard during lunch hour.  I positioned Kenzie between a planter and my scooter so that she could feel protected and not see in all directions at once.  She was again, pretty good.  One little girl came up and said ‘It’s her first day inside!  She’s doing really well.  I remember when she used to bark at us.’  This was coming from a 5 yr old.  It’s nice that the kids recognize us and know what we’re doing but it’s the adults I worry about, that they’ll think I’m a pedophile hanging around the schoolyard chatting with kids.  Maybe I watch too many crime shows.

And … The light goes on!  Kenzie has had a lightboard to practice on since Monday night.  It is a board with a light switch on one side and a big red ‘easy’ button on the other side.  When you hit the button it says “that was easy.”  Dogs are supposed to hit it with their nose.  Now, we have a problem with this.  Yes, Kenzie can touch the button with her nose.  But she also knows that she can make it make the sound with her paw.  Since she has learned her paw isn’t what we want, it’s her nose, but we do want the noise, she has decided to hit the button with her paw and her nose at the same time.

Today, while I was writing this, for the first time ever, Kenzie came to lay at my feet while I was on the computer.  She has been with us for 3 months and she has never been so inclined before.  Even when I have tried to get her to stay under my desk to practice for a work environment, she has really resisted and left as soon as I would let her.  She’s a bit slow to warm up, my Kenzie.

PS – 2 days later.  We ‘un-graduated’ back out of the schoolyard because Kenzie was having a particularly barky day.  But on the good news front – when walking on a leash Kenzie seems to be able to walk past other dogs who have been left tied up on the sidewalk outside of stores.  She just walks right on by!  And we’ve tried the light switch section of the light board and she got it in the first session.  She still doesn’t want to hit the easy button with her nose and prefers to just touch it with her nose while hitting it with her paw.  She gets quite perturbed when she knows she’s made the sound but I won’t give her a treat.  And that’s all for this week!  I should post this before I have to add another post script…