Guardian Dog

One of Charlie's most coveted emerging skills has been his seemingly instinctive practice of tending to Tim whenever he senses a threat or danger.   In the last few weeks we've seen an extension of that instinctive behavior to include a concern for Tim's well being.

We'd had a few consecutive rainy weekends and were all feeling a little cooped up when we finally got a little creative and turned our garage into a skating rink for Tim and his new skates. 

Everything was perfect except for the fact that Charlie desperately wanted to be a part of the action and would not leave Tim's side once those little skates were secured.   I originally banished Charlie to the house but Tim would have no part of that.  So I quickly retreated, apologized to Chuck and invited him back out to the garage.  The only new rule was that he had to stay in his crate while Tim skated.  

Tim was satisfied with our new accord and happily directed Charlie to his crate.  Charlie complied and watched intently as Tim stumbled and rolled around the garage.

I'm not sure what was going through Charlie's head that day as he remained so laser focused on Tim but he seemed to sense the risk involved with the activity and was hyper-alert as long as those skates were on Tim's feet.  In fact, the only time that Charlie broke from his sit-stay position was when Tim fell.

As soon as Tim hit the ground, Charlie was out of his crate and at Tim's side.    It was like he was checking him out himself to make sure his little buddy was unscathed.  Then once Tim laughed and reacted to him, Charlie relaxed and settled in next to him on the garage floor.

Once again the Wonder-Dog rises to the occasion.  I'm not sure if this behavior is a testament to the breed, the excellent bloodlines, or just the magic of our beloved Charlie.  Whatever it is, I'm more thankful every day for all the Charlie does for Tim.

Guardian Charlie

One of the many services for which an autism service dog may be trained is safety.  Many A-club kids have a tendency to wander, or even run away from caretakers or safe locations.  A service dog can be trained to divert a runner and redirect him back to a caretaker or to a place of safety.  (Sort of like a herding function.)  Dogs may also be trained to get in between a child and a point of danger like a busy road or an approaching stranger.

I knew that safety was going to be an added benefit of having Charlie around but since we haven't formally endeavored to train any safety related behaviors yet, I didn't expect Charlie to have a particularly protective instinct.

Boy was I wrong.

Las weekend at 3:00 am while we all soundly slept, our doorbell started to ring. An absolutely ferocious barking snapped me out of my sub-conscious state of dreamy denial.  The next thing I knew, my husband and I were frantically whispering instructions to each other and peering out the windows into the darkness to discern what was happening. Inexplicably, Tim slept throughout the entire episode.

Knowing that people with good intentions don't generally show up unannounced on your doorstep at 3:00 am, (although I do recall one such incident with my brother many, many years back) I phoned the local police and asked if they would send a squad car to patrol our street.  They agreed. So there we stood, in our jammies, noses pressed to the window watching the patrol car cruise our street until eventually their scanning spotlights landed on three unfortunate young men whose big night out ended with a stay in Hotel PD. (According to the police officer, the young men were so inebriated that they may have actually been lost in the neighborhood.    Sorry for the buzz kill guys but you just can't come ringing our bell in the middle of the night!)

When our heart rates returned to more normal levels, we noticed that Charlie wasn't with us.  I don't know when he stopped barking but at some point during all the commotion, Charlie found his way to where Tim was sleeping and lay himself on the floor in between the door and the bed.  He wasn't sleeping.  In fact, he was in a position of full alert with his head raised and staring into the darkness for something ... anything.   It literally took our breath away.  

By 4:00 am the Sergeant called us to close out the incident and we made our way back to bed.  That night, Charlie earned a spot with us.