Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Chloe and Blaine

I have 2 extra boys that I watch both before and after school every week day. Dax is seven, and Blaine is 5. Blaine is mildly autistic, and he rides a different bus to school than the other kids. His bus comes about 20 minutes later than theirs. He likes to walk Lydia, Ross, Mark & Dax down to the bus stop with me. I've taken to bringing Chloe along. This makes it easier to get Blaine back home. He doesn't like that he can't ride the bus with Dax, so he occasionally gets contrary when they leave, and I've had to carry him back to the house kicking and screaming. Chloe solves this problem nicely because he likes to hold her leash, and thus he goes back home nicely. The funny thing is that Chloe doesn't seem to want him to walk her. I don't know why, she lets my children walk her all of the time, and seems to enjoy it. She does okay as long as Blaine stays close to me, but as soon as he starts to get any distance ahead of me at all, she refuses to go until I catch up. She's even started getting ahold of the leash and yanking it out of his hands when he strays too far ahead. I wonder what is going on in her brain. Does she know that he is different and needs to stay with me? Is she afraid that he will steal her? Does she just not like to be walked by him? Or is she just asserting her dominance over him? She clearly sees herself as higher up in the pack than Blaine. I don't know, it is funny though.

1 comment:

timpani76 said...

Dogs are trained to help special needs people all the time. I wonder if you have somehow "trained" Chloe to think that Blaine needs special attention by the way you all treat him. Hmmm, I'm not sure I put that right.