Doggy chat on world autism awareness day

Today is world autism awareness day. When we humans are afraid of something we have a tendency to judge and avoid it. People are afraid of others who behave a little oddly and are a bit eccentric and that's the way people with autism can come across. Wills can seem very strange at times but he's also charming, funny and has a lot to tell you about and share with you, especially about Oliver and about what I call his 'chosen specialised subjects' - currently kings and queens. It was fitting that he spent world autism day at the Tower of London learning more about the history he adores. He used to specialise in disasters and knows so much that his big sister told me today that she needs to ask him to help her with her homework about the Hindenburg explosion.

This blog is all about how Oliver is helping Wills to adapt to and make sense of the world, as well as the practical help we are teaching him to give William to help him to cope with his autism and the physical challenges he faces everyday.

I've mentioned the amazing work Dogs for the Disabled are doing with their PAWS programme to help parents train family pet dogs to help their child with autism and introduced you to Grace and her Support Dogs assist dog Merlin. Today, I had some interesting twitter exchanged with people about the fantastic way our four legged friends can help us through life's challenges, including coping with autism.

@Sukesu said, "dogs seem to have a way of reaching people and making the world a much less scary and better place."

@NoDominance is a dog trainer and says, my dogs have helped me with my Aspergers. I can now coach small groups - dogs rock!" I'll be catching up with her soon to find out more about her amazing dogs and the work she does training dogs with challenging behaviours. Watch this space for a blog about this in the coming weeks.

I even heard from Diesel the greyhound, known on twitter as @blueskinnydog. He said, "we are very patient." If he's anything like Oliver he must be. Oliver never tires of William, whatever he does, be it incessantly running rings around him or lying all over him when he's trying to sleep of gnaw a bone.

@ASmallWorldGirl summed our discussion up in a singe tweet - "dogs make things better, they heal."

High chair for dogs in Ikea!

This was my favourite April Fool of the day. I was in Ikea this morning but didn't see anything quite like this!

Oliver is very much part of the family. He would have loved sitting up to the table with us. What do you think? Would your dog like being sat up at the table in a high chair? What other weird and wonderful things would you like to see invented for your canine family member? We've told you so much about Oliver and Wills and would love to hear more about you and your dogs.