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