# Delorey Boy Dies



## Maddy Freemont (Sep 16, 2009)

Does anyone know if in the case of the Delorey boy from Cape Breton who was lost in the bush for 2 nights had SAR DOGS deployed?

Just wondering... It is too bad he died from the hypothermia.


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## Geoff Empey (Jan 8, 2008)

Doesn't really give much info about the SAR effort .. Sad to hear though I was happy to hear he was found but reading this is like a punch to the gut. 

_"James was the subject of a massive search that involved search-and-rescue crews from around the province and hundreds of community volunteers."_


_http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2009/12/08/ns-delorey-dies.html
_


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

I don't know about the SAR dogs or not in that particular search or anything about it but........

It is a shame. There is a group here that is breeding and training dogs to actually break autistic behaviors, stay with the child, and alert to the parent if they go missing. An example is rocking behaviors - they say the dogs will pick up on it and pester the child until it quites. They still train the parents that their search training does not product a full fledged search dog but a dog that can alert and take the family to the child in the early moments of the child going missing. One of the dogs in our program is a "wash" from their breeding and selection program. Nice dogs primarily Czech and West German working lines.

Efforts like this

http://www.dogsforautism.org/index.html

And project lifesaver

http://www.projectlifesaver.org/


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## Ryan Cusack (Jan 19, 2009)

Nancy Jocoy said:


> An example is rocking behaviors - they say the dogs will pick up on it and pester the child until it quites. http://www.projectlifesaver.org/


I'll have to look at that link a little bit more, but I was unable to find anything about pestering the child to stop certain behaviors. Rocking or similar actions are called "stimming" and it's the individual's way of calming and trying to tune out an annoyance that will lead to a melt down. I've always been instructed to NEVER try and stop or prevent stimming.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

It may not be on their site. I met them at an event and they were discussing how the dogs broke the repetitive behavior somehow. This was casual conversation - enough to be interesting -


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## Ryan Cusack (Jan 19, 2009)

Did a little research on this because I'm good friends with a mother of an Asperger child. Asperger Syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder. She's a state certified Autism awareness instructor for Police, Fire and EMS.

She has heard of service dogs for autistic kids and believed that they didn't do as much 'pestering' or things along that line, but instead just their presence is therapeutic to the child. Her teenage son, on bad days, will lay in bed with one arm off to the side, petting their family dog. This dog is not specially trained, just the house knucklehead.

Another huge advantage to the service/assistance dog for the autistic child would be the area search capabilities. Having an sure way to "Find Billy!" would be an undoubted relief for families.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Ryan Cusack said:


> Did a little research on this because I'm good friends with a mother of an Asperger child. Asperger Syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder. She's a state certified Autism awareness instructor for Police, Fire and EMS.
> 
> She has heard of service dogs for autistic kids and believed that they didn't do as much 'pestering' or things along that line, but instead just their presence is therapeutic to the child. Her teenage son, on bad days, will lay in bed with one arm off to the side, petting their family dog. This dog is not specially trained, just the house knucklehead.
> 
> Another huge advantage to the service/assistance dog for the autistic child would be the area search capabilities. Having an sure way to "Find Billy!" would be an undoubted relief for families.


 
A niece of mine is autistic with CP. She gets tremendous benefit from her "house knucklehead" Aussie! :wink:
My sister taught her to "Find Samantha" as a game and both my niece and the dog love it. It seemed to be a very natural thing for the dog to do.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Yes, the people in our area who train these dogs are clear that this is not search training for scenarios where the autistic person is gone for hours, but rather when they leave the area, the dog finds caretaker and alerts them to the issue and takes them to the autistic child. 

These folks did feel that the herding breeds have natural behaviors that make them superior for this kind of work.


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