Mumsnet Talk

Have just finished attending a series of three workshops that are run by a charity called Dogs for the Disabled and are designed to help you explore the relationship between a child with autism and a pet dog.

The workshops are a pretty new idea but the techniques they use are based upon a charity's experience training assistance dogs for children with autism. They take you through everything from getting a pet dog (if you haven't already got one) and techniques to help develop the potential relationship between your child and dog. We've so far got our son involved with helping to clean our dog, Maddy's teeth, she' loves it and our 6 year old boy is happier to clean his teeth too. Maddy is also leaning to fetch our son's socks, shoes and jumper as well when we're going out which has broken a lot of the tension around going out.

The workshops seem to be around most of the UK but visit http://paws.dogsforthedisabled.org/ to find out more.