Like any 7 year old boy he needs lots of exercise, so we try to take him to the park every day, but as soon as he sees a dog he sprints off towards it. He won't stop or come back when I call him, he just wants to throw a ball for the dog to chase. But it's problematic for a couple of reasons. First, I can't have him running off every time he sees a dog (what if it were on the other side of the road?) Secondly, some dogs are not very child-friendly. Today we met two who growled at him when he tried to play with them. The owners kindly explained they were not good with kids but he doesn't understand that some dogs are ok and other dogs are not.
I don't want to take away the joy he gets from playing with dogs, and it would be near impossible anyway because we see them so often, but I need a plan to make it safe for him to do so. Of course we've thought about getting our own dog, but I would need to supervise him with it all day - and life is difficult enough already.
So can anyone help with ideas or just some insight into how we can manage an obsession like this in a safe way?
I have a thought about this - because I actually did this before we were going to get our son a dog. I contacted a local animal behaviourist who ran classes and had some very tolerant dogs and asked her if we could arrange "play dates" for my child to come and play with her amazingly-chilled dogs. We also did this with a local breeder (I commented on twitter about Leonbergers who are the most chilled animals I've ever met in my life). Essentially, child understand that "these dogs" with this particular person and this particular time were "okay". Any other dogs were "Not okay". It meant having to make it into a routine and of course that comes with its own issues, BUT at the same time it also meant my son knew after a while which dogs were okay and which weren't. And, as he once ran straight into a jaws of a barking, snapping ready-to-tear-him-apart dog I know exactly how this goes (ex husband, also on the spectrum, was too busy playing with his phone to notice the danger and I was laden with shopping...ugh, nightmare few moments).
ReplyDeleteMaybe give that a go and good luck; I have actually found that people who work with animals can prove to be very sympathetic with children on ASD spectrum.
Good luck!