My 9-year-old has been home sick for the last couple days. She reads to our autism service dog, Moose. Today she read to him for a while, and when she finished reading, Moose looked upset. He kept indicating to me that he needed something, but he’d already eaten, he didn’t want to go outside, and nobody was having a meltdown. Then I asked my daughter, “What did you and Moose do in your room?” She said “I was reading to him.” Jokingly I said, “I think he wants you to read to him some more.” She replied, “I guess I could read him two more chapters. Hey Moose, do you want to go read?” Moose grabbed his ball and ran to the bedroom. A few minutes later I snapped this photo.
Several minutes later, my daughter came out of the room without the dog. I asked “Where’s Moose?” As she walked over to the book shelf she replied, “He’s still on my bed.” then she picked out another book and went back to read to Moose.
The kicker here is that while she may be on the spectrum (not sure, hasn’t been tested, but high suspicion), Moose is not her service dog. He is my service dog who also happens to work wonders for my four year old (who is most definitely an Aspergian). This bonding is new.
(PS - In the photo you can see he’s placed his {pink} ball with her stuff behind him)