[Nike007]

Hello. Someone I know has moderate to severe high-functioning autism and keeps petting our dog (dad's gf's kid is whom I am talking about) badly like shaking her legs, spreading her paws away from each other, almost choking the dog in a hug.

Anyways, my dad and his girlfriend keep telling him not to pet or touch the dog like that, but he keeps doing it. I also probably had ASD (Aspergers) so I know sometimes you don't understand certain things well (he basically has little to none social concept) so he keeps doing this to express his love to the dog, and doesn't understand he is hurting the dog.

What is the best way to communicate to him that doing those types of actions aren't socially acceptable and hurt the dog? He has done this enough that we think the dog will bite him. Any thoughts? Thanks for the response .

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[Hellion]

Has your dad or girlfriend tried to express to the child that if they keep it up the dog might bite them? Does the dog actively seem bothered when this kid is doing this stuff to him, or does he more just try and ignore it? I find it a wee bit strange an autistic person wouldn't be more in tune with the dogs body language, being on the spectrum myself I think its much easier to understand animals than humans.

But yeah if the dog is very bothered by this and tries to fight him off, it is possible he might bite out of feeling threatened. If the dog seems 'irritated' but tolerates it without much struggle he probably won't bite unless the kid did something really out of the ordinary and scary like if he suddenly started hitting or kicking the dog. But I have seen dogs annoyed but not threatened by some kid all over them grabbing and pulling seems they just hope it ends soon so they can go back to being a dog, and I have seen dogs that get freaked out by that.

How does this child respond when told not to pet the dog that way?

Teach by example? Take his hand and pet together. Over and over and over. lol

[Nike007]

Originally Posted by Hellion

Has your dad or girlfriend tried to express to the child that if they keep it up the dog might bite them? Does the dog actively seem bothered when this kid is doing this stuff to him, or does he more just try and ignore it? I find it a wee bit strange an autistic person wouldn't be more in tune with the dogs body language, being on the spectrum myself I think its much easier to understand animals than humans.

But yeah if the dog is very bothered by this and tries to fight him off, it is possible he might bite out of feeling threatened. If the dog seems 'irritated' but tolerates it without much struggle he probably won't bite unless the kid did something really out of the ordinary and scary like if he suddenly started hitting or kicking the dog. But I have seen dogs annoyed but not threatened by some kid all over them grabbing and pulling seems they just hope it ends soon so they can go back to being a dog, and I have seen dogs that get freaked out by that.

How does this child respond when told not to pet the dog that way?

No, they talk about that to themselves. I know the dog is really bothered with it. She doesn't normally bite things other than her toys but.

I asked my dad about that and he doesn't understand human or animal language basically at all. Would you be willing to drop your pants in public and change? He would.

He says okay but will do it again. What I have been doing is what he does to the dog I do to him (nothing harmful though). He shone a light into our dog's eyes last night so I grabbed the light and did that to him. I asked him if that was comfortable and he said no so I said don't do that to the dog then. When I finished that lecture with him he just laughed and said I was funny.

Oh ya, he probably has mild intellectual disorder or whatever, but he was diagnosed with autism at 2 so that wasn't tested I think. He has English problems though and probably has dyslexia also. So some of that might be because of the intellectually part of it.

Thanks for the response .

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[Nike007]

Originally Posted by ValentinaVVV

Teach by example? Take his hand and pet together. Over and over and over. lol

He doesn't seem to understand that though. I may try that just to give it a go. Thanks for the response .

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Animals are actually really great for kids with autism. If he has an intellectual disability, it will take longer for him to learn. It takes a lot of patience.