This week we made several visits to party/Halloween stores.....can you believe they are already sold out of many kids costumes (took us 4 stores before we found ones for the girls). We worked on desensitizing with Luke at the stores, we walked by displays (not activating them), looked at masks and some of the less scary motion sensor displays. During the last trip this week we did activate some of the bigger displays he did a soft woof but did not act scared and his body language showed interest not fear or nervousness. We will continue to visit the stores and work up to the big displays. All the staff were great and were amazed that he is only 11mo old, as he was so well behaved.
Therapy went great this week. We worked on up/down stairs, pushing the handicap push plates, and down stays. Luke also has no reaction to the noises of the therapy office. The only time he whines is if he is alerting to Ara's anxiety.
We went out to lunch with Ara's best friend and her family to Wendy's. Luke again has shown that he is maturing. We ordered our food and went to the table. After just a few tries (very small crowded area) Luke was able to do a great "under" where he was mostly under Ara's chair and out of the way. No one knew he was there until we left and he did a great job guiding Ara through the crowd and out of the building.
We went to Cosco and Walmart also this week. In costco we worked on direction commands, ignoring distractions and working in big crowds. Luke did great with ignoring food (some of it on the floor) and he was solid.
At walmart we had a very special moment. I had a mom stop us to ask us about Luke her daughter was diagnosed with CP but she now has an autism diagnoses and is in a special wheel chair. The little girl wanted to pet Luke, Luke was happy to oblige. But then he surprised us all, he actually did his behavior interruption task on the little girl because she started to hit herself and was overwhelmed, as soon as he started licking her she calmed and she tried to talk to him. While I was talking to the mom he would keep going back to the little girl to lick her any time she needed it and then would check in on Ara. It was amazing to see. While at walmart we worked on find bathroom, find dad and directional commands (right/left)
On Saturday we had a lot of fun. We went to the big new Sheels store. It has a ferris wheel, mini bowling ally, games, a huge fish tank and more. We got to work on many things so I will just quickly list some of them out. We worked on distractions, new walking surfaces, stairs, noises (animals, guns, bowling, ferris wheel hydraulics), big stuffed game animals, and polite greetings. Luke did awesome with everything. At the ferris wheel the operators let me come up to the car to snap a picture and Luke went right up the stairs to the platform to help Ara get off and down. Again I can see how much Luke is growing, he did not bark, or get over excited at anything and took everything in like it was no big deal.
Now for the not so good of the week. We went to a Red, White and Blue event that featured first responders and all the vehicles they use. It was very neat and the kids enjoyed being able to go through all the vehicles and meeting everyone. We had to avoid the police display because they had a plolice K-9 and did not want to cause a problem. Luke saw the other dog but I told him "leave it" and kept going. We were almost done with a guy on a bike and an off leash doberman were in the vicinity we were, Luke had a puppy moment and lost his composure, whining/barking and prancing around. I was able to get him back on task but it took a few minutes and he was done so it was time to go home. We still have to work on his excitement toward other dogs. The funny thing is about other dogs he can hear them barking and it does not bother him and will look toward the sound with some interest but one "leave it" and he is fine. So we are making some progress just need to do more training.
This week we will be working on more team work between Ara and Luke and working on Luke's tasks.
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