and Ty and Gretchen both did so well, we stopped by the local store next door to "get lunch" and then walked home to eat lunch...
and then had to pick up little sister (we drove and didn't have to get out of the car - which seemed to work out for him)
But this simple "living out of his bubble world" even if only for brief moments of the day
is so exhausting to his system, he's onto his second nap of the day!
Now napping is the preferred coping skill, compared to meltdown aggressive crashing type behavior
which we had a little bit of- over nothing as usual
but even with that occurring Gretchen steps in and it's fantastic...
it's just what he needs when he no longer can stay in control of himself, and I hold him, and call Gretchen over- she licks him, tickles him with her tongue, makes him start to laugh, literally turns his mood around... and I use hand over hand to pet her, stroke her- and I resist his "tries at getting her to stop" and
continue until he calm himself enough and ends up laying with her....
Now I'm pretty sure this is how it's supposed to go- dog helps boy regulate and calm down... and decreases the time and frequency, duration of the behavior meltdown and brings him back to present...
couldn't be happier to have Gretchen around!
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