Already seeing improvement!

Hi Everyone!

Just taking a minute to check in and update you on recent events. Buddy is a wonderful addition to our family. He is going pretty much everywhere with Jonathan except school right now (we're waiting until the beginning of next school year to start him). Jonathan is continuing to bond, and Buddy is even sleeping on his bed now! (That means Jonathan is not in my bed...Yay!)

I brought Buddy with me to work a couple of days ago. My students LOVED that! Buddy stayed the entire day. We went to 13 classes and a sr. citizens luncheon. He showed his obedience, behavior disruption commands and even some of his tricks for each one. His behavior was perfect. It showed me that he understands when it's time to work and when it's okay to be a puppy. I am so pleased with how he's doing!

Jonathan's teacher reports that she sees great progress with Jonathan since we've been back home. He is identifying classmates and family in pictures, recognizes about 5 sight words and is copying written sentences. The only change is Buddy...and we've only had him for four weeks! I can't wait to see what else continues to happen!

Everyone has been very supportive when they've seen us out and about with Buddy. It's been quite an adjustment for me. I appreciate being able to go more places, and I'm thrilled that Jonathan doesn't mind being tethered!!! I'm still adjusting to the fact that I feel like a 3-ring circus and draw a lot of attention wherever we go...but I'm hoping I'll get used to that eventually.

Summer is almost here. We plan to practice, practice, practice with Buddy so that he'll be more than ready for school in the fall.

Heather

We're home!

We passed the public access test and ended up driving home right after graduation. We were so anxious to see Andrew and Aaron again...it was a long two weeks without our boys! We've jumped right back into life. We're exhausted, but can see that life is going to be much better with Buddy in our lives. Jonathan continues to accept him in his routine. We have him sleeping in Jonathan's room now, and it's going well (baby steps!).

Holly, our other Golden Retriever, has been slow to give up her position as head dog. There were a few days of craziness as the dogs tried to figure out the dominance game. Now they are like siblings...whatever one has, the other wants. It's pretty funny.

Buddy still has stitches, but is doing well. Thanks for all the support while we were away. We are so fortunate to have such a great group of friends and family!

Heather

Finals tomorrow!

Hi Everyone!

Well, Buddy is a real trooper! He is back to being able to do everything! He doesn't even seem to notice that he has an injury! Goof-ball! We've modified his harness a bit so that it doesn't rub his wound, but other than that, he's been full-speed ahead.

Tomorrow is our public access test. This means the trainer will follow me around the mall for about 20 minutes while I put Buddy through all of his obedience paces in public. He'll have to heel, follow basic commands (sit, down, come), stay while I drop the leash, manage stairs and elevators calmly, and basically show that I can handle him in a public setting. After that he has to stay in down under the table in a restaurant setting. Finally, I have to take him outside and show that I can load him into the car the right way. I'm a little nervous because there's a whole lot of puppy in Buddy still (he's only 15 months old), but we plan to run him before hand so that his excess energy is worn off. I've passed it before with Hans, so I think we'll be okay.

We'll have a graduation at 4Paws in the afternoon and be on the road for home on Saturday.

I can't wait to introduce Buddy to all of you! He's a little embarrassed about the shaved spot on his back, but I've convinced him that people still want to meet him. :)

See you all very soon!

Heather

Drama and Trauma

Buddy injured himself today. Somehow he got a deep cut on his back...we've retraced all our steps, but still aren't sure how it happened. The only thing we can think of is possibly under a picnic table, but Dave's gone back to look at it and didn't see anything sharp on it.

Thankfully, 4Paws has a full-time vet on staff, who immediately sedated him and put in 6 stitches. He's on complete rest for the remainder of today, and has to wear a cone collar unless we can watch him carefully. We have pain meds as well as anti-inflamatories and antibiotics for him to take. The doctor said he should be back to normal activity by tomorrow. We'll have to see how he does through the night. I was as much of a wreck about this as I would be if one of my kids had gotten hurt.

Monday, Monday...so good to me...

Hi Everyone!

I feel like I'm walking around in a fog. The exhaustion is overwhelming, but I am thrilled with the training we're doing with Buddy. Dave is spending lots of one on one time with Jonathan while I'm in class. This has been great for both of them. Jonathan has been very verbal this week...repeating a lot of words and showing increased receptive language as well. Although it's been extremely hard to be away from Andrew and Aaron, it was a good choice to spend this time with Jonathan alone. He is bonding more and more with Buddy each day. We have more hope than we've had in a very long time.

We took Jonathan to a restaurant for both breakfast and dinner today. Each time was a little better. He remained tethered to Buddy the entire time, and we were able to get him to sit in a chair during dinner. He uses Buddy as a foot rest, which Buddy soaks up as positive attention. Silly dog! :) Here are some pictures from tonight at dinner.

Dave enjoyed some time with Jonathan.

Our track outside was challenging today due to very high wind. The scent was blown way off the path and hard for Buddy to find initially. (Many of the dogs had trouble with this today). Once he found the scent, he was dead on and pulled HARD!

We also did two indoor tracks at the mall, which he nailed.

It's been a full day. Time for bed!

Heather

Half way...

So much has happened today! Jonathan had a rough start this morning when we tried to eat breakfast in the hotel dining room. As I've mentioned before, he is fine being tethered to Buddy as long as we keep moving. Today, we decided to let him tantrum while we ate breakfast. It wasn't pretty...it WAS loud! I figured there was no better place to have Jonathan figure out that we wouldn't give in with his tantrum than a room filled with 4Paws families who completely understand. He cried and screamed and tried to pull Buddy across the floor...Buddy was a trooper! He stayed in a down the whole time. Jonathan finally wore himself out and ended up sitting on the floor next to Buddy. When he was no longer screaming, just fussing, Buddy flopped over to comfort him. It was amazing to watch the tension leave Jonathan as he sat on the floor with his Buddy.

We worked on behavior disruption commands this morning. There are five things that the dogs are trained to do to disrupt behaviors of the kids. One is the 'touch' command. This is where the dog touches the child with his paw to get their attention. Jonathan doesn't respond well to any dog's paws, so we probably won't use this technique with him. The second command is the 'lap' command. We WILL use this one. It is where the dog puts his head in the child's lap for comfort. The third is 'nuzzle'. This one is mostly used to distract a crying child. The dog gently bumps the child's hands with his nose. The fourth is 'kisses'-which we might use on Jonathan's feet and hands, but I think it's too overwhelming for his face. The last is 'over'. The dog steps over the child and is put in a down on top of their legs for deep pressure (something a lot of kids with autism need and like).

Then we went tracking again. I hid with Jonathan and Dave found us with Buddy. Tomorrow we track inside the mall. It's different from outside tracking. Much more of a controlled walk instead of all out run.

Tonight was the most exciting time. I called Buddy up on the bed with Jonathan and within 20 minutes this is what happened...let the bonding begin!

Heather

Tracking in the Woods

Tracking is going very well. This is how it works. Buddy is trained to be a scent-specific search and rescue dog. That means he only searches for one person. Up to this point, he's been tracking the scent of a 4Paws staff person named Kayla. For the past two days, Kayla has been hiding with Jonathan (and either me or Dave) and Buddy has been tracking her scent mixed with Jonathan's. Today we took Kayla out of the equation and Buddy found Jonathan!!! I controlled the track while Dave hid in the woods with Jonathan. Jeremy, the head trainer, ran along with me to coach-but he had me do the whole thing since I've been through the training before. Buddy's body language is pretty easy to read. It's obvious when he's on the scent and when he's lost it. That's great news! I didn't enjoy running through the muddy ravine that was filled with fallen timber (I'm terrified of snakes), but I did it.

After tracking we spent the afternoon at a busy mall working on heeling Buddy through crowds of people while tethered to Jonathan. We started off by eating lunch at the food court, and Buddy did great in a 'down' under the table. (Although I'm going to have to work with him on ignoring the distration of falling french fries-Jonathan's favorite food!) We walked all over the mall, up and down stairs, riding in elevators, and I even bought something in one of the stores. (Well, we WERE at a mall after all!) Jonathan stayed tethered for and hour and a half! Major accomplishment!!! He was even happy about it unless we stopped moving.

Jonathan is becoming more and more tollerant of Buddy. I've seen him reach out to touch Buddy several times. He enjoys touching him with his feet, and Buddy, being the attention seeking goof-ball that he is, loves it.

Keep the prayers coming-they're helping so much!!!

Heather

Successful Tethering and Sleeping

One of our goals is to be able to go out in public without Jonathan bolting away from us. This is where tethering him to Buddy is critical. Thanks to Betty, we now have a modified vest that he wears and (miracle!) is happy about it! We say, "let's take Buddy for a walk" and he happily (so far) comes along - as long as we keep moving! Stopping to talk to people is not a happy thing at the moment, but we'll keep working on it.

Another goal is to transfer Jonathan's need to fall asleep with me over to Buddy. Last night, Buddy was on his bed with Dave while Jonathan fell asleep. Then, this morning at 5:30, Buddy voluntarily jumped back up for awhile. Jonathan woke up happy, and I even saw him reach down and touch Buddy.

And I don't know who's been praying...but the sun is shining! Thank you!!!

Heather