We had a neighbor whose daughter was terrified of dogs.  Her mother swears that she was born that way.  They used to ask if out previous dog could come over and play with her (a little at a time) so that she could over come her fear.  It did help her.

We love dogs and animals of all kinds but were hesitant when we lost our beloved Rosie a few months ago.  My mother is the founder of Save Animals From Elimination (SAFE Inc.) so I have been around animals much of my life and have seen the magic that they can bring.

To answer your primary question, yes.  We will have to be mindful of bringing Lily over to Ryan when he is heading for a crisis and do a reward ritual after she sniffs him.  It goes into more detail than that, but I won’t at this point.  Eventually, she will get excited and "alert" us with a certain behavior all on her own when he is sick.

When he is playing and sweats too much, Lily will be trained to alert us to that fact, and/or bring Ryan a bottle of water and make him sit down until he drinks it.  If this works, it could help us to avoid him going into hypervolemic shock.  This seems to be Ryan’s achilles heel.  He is a severe salt waster and it doesn’t take much loss of fluid to make him feel very ill or send him into a real crisis.

We will also be training BOTH Ryan and Lily to go to each other when he suffers from mood swings.  She will help him to calm down by kissing him and trying to get him to pet her.  He is very aware of his role in all of this and has been practicing with a large stuffed animal.  It has already served to help him realize his OWN control issues.  He is not out of control by any means (so the pup is not in any danger), but I want to try this to help us all cope.

It will take much dedication and patience but, the outcome will be well worth it (with God’s grace).  You can be sure that I will let you all know if this turns out to be something I think will help other children with CAH.

Keep us in your prayers.