GSD watches over autistic children

[OzarksGSD]

This story was compelling to me for several reasons, (1.) I, of course love GSDs and (2.) I have family members that are on the autism spectrum and I have worked with autistic students:

Puppy watches over children with autism - CNN.com

[Samba]

That is a great piece. Made me cry.

[bellamia]

ok ! that was really good. i have a niece of 4yrs who is severly autistic and sometime maybe they might think of a therapy dog. at this time they visit us every yr(from new jersy) and my brother in law is not a dog person infact since he works in NY he encounters schutzund gsds everyday! he has no clue about any lines etc so no use telling him. to him all gsds are scary! last time they visited my mia was only 3mths old , still scary to him. this time i am sending this link to him cause he shud no hw wrong he is about them!

[ken k]

good post, thanks

[GSDolch]

Great story.

Dogs in general are good for children with special needs (well, dogs that are trained for it and all of that)

[Kiowa]

I have a very good friend from the Army who has an autistic child. When she got out of the service, she got a Weimaraner as a pet. He immediately took to her daughter and she is working to get him certified as a therapy dog now so he can accompany them into stores and other places. The dog calms her daughter and can almost sense when she's going to have an issue. It's amazing to see. She found a trainer that will come to her home and work with them all together, also. I think it's just awesome how dogs sometimes just know. What an awesome story.

[Smithie86]

We gave Emi to a family with an auitstic child and helped them work with her. She has been incredible with Kathryn. My nick name for Emi was "earth mommie dog" and she lives up to it. They are a few mile from us, so Emi comes to stay with us occasionally and we get to see her a lot. She loves her job and her family.

KK1 Molinari Emi, SCh1 littermate to KK1 Molinari Enzo SCH3, IPO3, VK3, FH1 (4 x WUSV and 3x FCI) Handler Owner trained.

[weber1b]

I think smart dogs, like shephards, have a sense about things like this. My youngest son, who is now 18, has always been drawn to animals, and they are drawn to him. He was part of the reason our rescue group matched us with Clover in the beginning.

This kind of therapy for any development issue is so positive and so real, unlike some of the new and unproven therapies that get foisted on the public, who are simply yearning for real help.

Great story, thanks for sharing.

[milkmoney11]

I have an student with Aspergers (a disorder on the autism spectrum) and he wanted NO part of my puppy when I brought him in last week.

I told them a few days before I was bringing him in and he became extremely agitated and told me he would not be in the room when the dog came in. Said he is not an "Animal Person". I let him go down to the speech therapist room during this time.

I was a little disappointed because he is the kind of kid who seems like he would be great with dogs.

[ILGHAUS]

Just to straighten up the terms.

A Therapy Dog can not go into grocery stores, restaurants, or most places of business. Legally they are still pets and their owner/handlers have no special Public Access Rights. Therapy Dogs can only go places where other well-behaved pet dogs can go and to visit facilities where they are invited. A Therapy Dog is trained to be well-behaved and work with their handler for the benefit/enjoyment of others.

A Service Dog or Assistance Dog as they are know in many places are trained tasks that their disabled handler can not do for themself. The owner/handler of a Service Dog has Public Access Rights and can take their Service Dog into "most" places where the general public is allowed.