*This post is part of a series originally posted on my former blog, Stinker Babies. I’m reposting here for families who are interested in learning more about the process of being matched with a service dog for their children. This series was written during March of 2013.*

This morning’s training was a bit different. The class was split into two groups for search training. Wandering is hugely prevalent on the autism spectrum and Caleb is no exception. Autism-related wandering and elopement have given me quite a few scares. April and her classmates are all dogs with great noses. They’ve all been trained in scent tracking and today, they got to practice tracking their kids.

We volunteered to go with the second track group. By “volunteered,” I mean that when they asked for people who wanted to go in the first group, we looked at the ceiling and the floor and the dog and the kids. Anything to have just a couple more warming hours. Spoiler Alert: It never really warmed up.

After reviewing what we learned yesterday, we worked on those commands with a dropped leash and then out of sight. April rocked it with the obedience practice. She was, however, super excited to be with her pals today. We quickly learned that we’ll need to show up to class a bit early so we can let her run a bit.

Halfway through the morning session, our group bundled up and piled into our cars to head to the park. One by one, each child walked a different path with a trainer and they hid inside a different stand of trees. As soon as we pulled into the parking area, April was on super high alert. As each child walked off, she did not take her eyes off of him or her. She was practically trembling. Then it was our turn. Caleb and I walked with one of the trainers into a new area. We had been inside the little wood for just a minute before April came bounding in. She found him. In what must have literally been about 90 seconds. Two minutes at the most.

When you’ve seen some of the absolutely heartbreaking stories in the news about spectrum kiddos who have wandered off, you know that even seconds can make a life or death difference. And then you see this dog track and find your child in such a short amount of time?  You know you’ve just witnessed a total miracle. We’ll get to do it again tomorrow. This time, I’ll get to witness this miracle from the end of the leash and watch April do her thing. Today?  All I know is that she found my boy. Her boy.

This afternoon, we got our mutt mat and learned the “place” command. An example of this one would be if you were at home and you ordered a pizza. When the doorbell rings, you would tell the dog, “place,” and she would go to her mat and lie down until you released her. This cuts down on the number of terrified pizza delivery guys and gals.

According to Caleb’s 24-hour EEG, he is not having seizures so April isn’t trained to do seizure alert. About half of the dogs in our class are trained in seizure alert. We got to watch them practice their seizure alerts today. It was incredible. I totally got tears in my eyes seeing the amazing difference they will make in their families.

After class, we took April out to the yard and I threw the ball for her for about 20 minutes. The kids got to play on the playground. Then it started to snow a bit. It was such a great way to end the day of training. Tomorrow morning, we’ll do a track in the park and then after lunch, we’ll go to the mall for our first public access practice. Eeek!  I hope we do alright. After tomorrow afternoon, we’ll be allowed and expected to practice with April in public places. This is where it really counts. This is what our service dog certification test will be based on. The obedience work lays the foundations but the public access is what will be tested. No pressure!

On that note, I’m gonna go look over the notes from today. Hope everyone has a great night!