Recently, I wrote about tethering kids to dogs. A mom named Karlye took the time to email me to tell me about her two-year-old son who is autistic and his service dog MaddySue. I asked Karlye if I could post her email her so other readers could learn more about this issue, and she generously said yes. I broke the message into paragraphs to make it easier to read, but otherwise haven't changed anything.
My son and I are part of a three unit tethering team. He is an autistic
two year old that has had difficulty in the past with wandering and
bolting as well as anxiety and lack of communication. MaddySue, our 6
year old boxer has allowed he and I to have a new lease on life. The
security of knowing my son will no longer run toward traffic with me
frantically running behind and screaming his name praying he won't get
hit is like a fresh breath of air. When the two of them are in a
confined place such as our back yard, they are tethered to each other
because of my sons climbing skills, he can easily climb trees or over
fences, but with the privacy fence I know that if MaddySue took off
chasing whatever she couldn't go far. That being said, when we are in
public we function as a three unit team. MaddySue and kip are tethered
together while there is a lengthy lead from me to MaddySue. We can now
all enjoy outings to the mall or whatnot knowing that she can keep him
close and in the event she looses her focus, I'm there to control her.I
too could never immagine leaving MaddySue and kip tethered together in
public without me for fear if all the dangers that lurk, so in that
regard I agree with you.
Our life has changed so much because of this.
Not only is MaddySue a tether dog, she has also been trained for sensory
stimulation. In the event that kip is having severe anxiety or is upset
MaddySue uses her body to put pressure on him to allow him to relax and
gain control of the situation instead of running away. She has also
helped with communication, before we had her he spoke with only three
words from ASL, none vocalized. He now plays with her by saying "fetch
or come" and has even started verbalizing to his father and myself by
hiding behind MaddySue and then talking to us indirectly using only a
few words but no sign language! Miss MaddySue is a blessing to our
family....
Thank you for taking the time to read this and maybe this
can help you to understand better the other options for tether
training.
Showing posts with label autism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label autism. Show all posts
Monday, April 22, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Tethering Kids to Dogs
Service dogs for children seem to be the newest fad or something. Numerous programs now exist that train and place service dogs with kids with autism, often kids as young as two. Many programs also now exist that place service dogs, or in some cases untrained puppies, with kids with type 1 diabetes, also often with kids as young as two (to read more about one such program, refer back to this post. I'm not naming the program on my blog but if you want to know the name, email me at poet_kelly at yahoo dot com. The program is still selling parents untrained puppies, although they've been sued by at least one family that didn't get what they paid for).
Parents may seek service dogs for their children with autism for a variety of reasons, but one thing they often hope a service dog can do is keep their children from wandering off or running off. Those are two different things. A child with autism may quietly wander away and become lost before anyone even notices he's gone. A child with autism may also become startled, frightened, or overwhelmed and bolt, and parents or caregivers may notice he's gone but find it difficult to catch him. Many years ago, I worked with children with disabilities that were being mainstreamed into typical classes in public schools. I remember chasing one child that bolted from her classroom and then ran out of the school building. I remember praying she didn't run into traffic, as the school was on a very busy road. I can certainly understand why parents want a way to prevent their kids from doing this.
Tethering kids to dogs is the solution proposed by some programs that place service dogs with autistic children. The child and the dog both wear some sort of harness and a leash of some sort connects the two. The dog, a larger-sized dog like a golden retriever or a lab, is trained to dig in his heels and stay put when the child tries to bolt.
While it might initially look like a good way to solving the program, it's really an incredibly dangerous practice. You see, no matter how well-trained a service dog is, he's still a dog. Dogs have brains similar to those of four-year-old children. You wouldn't put a four-year-old without autism in charge of your four year old with autism, would you? And why not? Because sometimes four-year-old children get distracted. Sometimes they forget things. Sometimes they make mistakes. And so do dogs.
There was a study, admittedly done on a very small scale, of service dogs placed with autistic children. I plan to write more about the study later, because many of its findings really disturbed me. The children in the study were tethered to the dogs and one of the dogs did take off running after something one day while tethered to a small child. The child tried to run to keep up with the dog, but of course he couldn't keep up, so he fell and was then dragged for several feet. Luckily the child was not seriously injured, but he could have been. What if the dog had run into the street, dragging the child behind him? What if the dog had run into a shallow creek? Kids can drown in very shallow water.
Isaac has gotten much better, but he once pulled me off my feet running after a neighborhood cat. And I weigh a good hundred pounds more than a typical four-year-old with autism. He hasn't done that in quite a while but I still would not tether an autistic child to him. Hell, I wouldn't tether myself to him! Part of why he doesn't take off after cats anymore when we're on walks is because I watch him closely. When he catches sight of a cat or squirrel or something else he would like to chase, his ears prick up and his tail sticks out straight. I know from his body language he's thinking about giving chase. Then I remind him to pay attention to me. An autistic child would find it difficult or impossible to pick up on those signs from a dog, though, and redirect him.
Since a four-year-old, autistic or not, should not be going anywhere unsupervised, if the child really needs to be tethered to someone to prevent bolting, it seems that the child could be tethered instead of a parent or caregiver. You know, an adult caregiver that would be much less likely than a dog to get distracted and chase a squirrel into traffic.
Parents may seek service dogs for their children with autism for a variety of reasons, but one thing they often hope a service dog can do is keep their children from wandering off or running off. Those are two different things. A child with autism may quietly wander away and become lost before anyone even notices he's gone. A child with autism may also become startled, frightened, or overwhelmed and bolt, and parents or caregivers may notice he's gone but find it difficult to catch him. Many years ago, I worked with children with disabilities that were being mainstreamed into typical classes in public schools. I remember chasing one child that bolted from her classroom and then ran out of the school building. I remember praying she didn't run into traffic, as the school was on a very busy road. I can certainly understand why parents want a way to prevent their kids from doing this.
Tethering kids to dogs is the solution proposed by some programs that place service dogs with autistic children. The child and the dog both wear some sort of harness and a leash of some sort connects the two. The dog, a larger-sized dog like a golden retriever or a lab, is trained to dig in his heels and stay put when the child tries to bolt.
While it might initially look like a good way to solving the program, it's really an incredibly dangerous practice. You see, no matter how well-trained a service dog is, he's still a dog. Dogs have brains similar to those of four-year-old children. You wouldn't put a four-year-old without autism in charge of your four year old with autism, would you? And why not? Because sometimes four-year-old children get distracted. Sometimes they forget things. Sometimes they make mistakes. And so do dogs.
There was a study, admittedly done on a very small scale, of service dogs placed with autistic children. I plan to write more about the study later, because many of its findings really disturbed me. The children in the study were tethered to the dogs and one of the dogs did take off running after something one day while tethered to a small child. The child tried to run to keep up with the dog, but of course he couldn't keep up, so he fell and was then dragged for several feet. Luckily the child was not seriously injured, but he could have been. What if the dog had run into the street, dragging the child behind him? What if the dog had run into a shallow creek? Kids can drown in very shallow water.
Isaac has gotten much better, but he once pulled me off my feet running after a neighborhood cat. And I weigh a good hundred pounds more than a typical four-year-old with autism. He hasn't done that in quite a while but I still would not tether an autistic child to him. Hell, I wouldn't tether myself to him! Part of why he doesn't take off after cats anymore when we're on walks is because I watch him closely. When he catches sight of a cat or squirrel or something else he would like to chase, his ears prick up and his tail sticks out straight. I know from his body language he's thinking about giving chase. Then I remind him to pay attention to me. An autistic child would find it difficult or impossible to pick up on those signs from a dog, though, and redirect him.
Since a four-year-old, autistic or not, should not be going anywhere unsupervised, if the child really needs to be tethered to someone to prevent bolting, it seems that the child could be tethered instead of a parent or caregiver. You know, an adult caregiver that would be much less likely than a dog to get distracted and chase a squirrel into traffic.
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