Earning his keep

We are a long way from having trained our puppy in any serious way. I mean that in both the sense of he’s not a service dog yet and in the sense that i spent the last week teaching him to play ‘the floor is lava’ and to drop to floor if I make a finger gun and yell ‘bang’ at him. Neither of these things are necessary for being a service dog but playing floor is lava with my fae child does bring a smile to her face as they both run round the garden like maniacs trying to find something to stand on and frankly there are times that I want to shoot the creature for mauling me/stealing things or generally just existing in a way I find objectionable. Doing this with a finger gun means I can repeatedly ‘shoot’ him; no consequences, no witnesses and no awkward questions. So win-win. 

Since his arrival there has been a significant decrease in the number and intensity of meltdowns my daughter has had. She’s not masking more at home but when she has run out of spoons she will turn into a small immovable boulder in the middle of the kitchen floor and let the puppy bounce over her. I don’t understand why this helps her regulates – it may be some form of deep pressure message that wasn’t covered in the books or by OT or a new form of chaotic canine therapy that’s so advanced we’re not there yet but it makes her laugh and that’s all that matters. 

On days where she has energy but no capacity for conversation, he adapts accordingly.

They run what I can only describe as puppy laps.

This involves sprinting in increasingly tight circles around the garden until both of them collapse in the centre, dizzy and wheezing, in a tangle of limbs and fur.

The lawn is… no longer a lawn.

It is now an early-stage NASCAR track since it appears that they can only turn left.

At this rate, I expect erosion to complete its work in a month and leave us with a functional moat. I am currently considering suitable fish species for it so we can rebrand it as a “water feature” and pretend this was intentional.

Days when she hasn’t the energy for anything he seems content to follow her around with a stuffed banana in his mouth until the sheer absurdity of it makes her laugh. 

So yeah, not trained yet but when it comes to emotionally regulating our fae, he’s already earning his keep. Which is good because he cost a fortune.