My Aspie Dog

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Asperger's Syndrome is a thing that you only really find in humans but my dog challenges that. His name is Gary and he is an unusually large and thin papillon. My mom, who is a devoted dog lover and a former vets assistant saw him all alone at a pet store. Apparently, she asked one of the workers about why he was in a cage labeled Papillon when he didn't look exactly like a Papillon. The lady said he was born that way, he was just a taller papillon. He didn't look like a purebred so nobody bought him and he was stuck in that cage for 5 months evr since he was able to be dependent on himself(8 weeks). My mom felt bad for him and the owner decided to discount him by 1/2 price, and so she bought him. I was at gamestop browsing games when my sister and cousin came and told me that we had gotten a new dog.

At first, I was shocked. We had three dogs and my dad had said he would be mighty angry if we brought home another one. So we made up a cover story by stating we found him behind a restaraunt and took him home because he was still a puppy. We named the dog Gary after spongebob's pet snail. In the mall and the car, I noticed how polite and quite Gary was. He was scared as well because it had been the first time he had been out of a cage in a long time. Gary had developed no social skills at all because he was in that cage for so long and he didn't know how to react to his new environment and all the people around him kissing his forehead and rubbing his coat.

At home, he also didnt know how to interact with the dogs we had: a maternal and elderly lab/ german shepard mix, a little scrappy female long haired chihuahua, and an extremely hyper long-haired Jack russel male who was 6 monhs older than gary and who managed to have high testosterone levels despite being neutered. These dogs had a pack mentality that they formed in my house that included a matriarch and ranking system. Roxy the oldest, was the matriarch as sweet as she was and treated everyone as her baby. Fiona, the chihuahua, the second eldest, was in the middle, and Baxter, th youngest, was on the lower end but always tried to assert his authority on everyone else.
Gary became th lowest when he came into my house and remains so.

Gary became Baxter's best friend in a short time as they were of similar age and size and they were both males. The problem with gary though is that he was mentally undeveloped. He had extreme fear of many things and he was anxious all the time. He also would run away if you wanted to pick him up. He wouldn't growl either if you did anything he didn't like like picking him up, he would just grunt or whine.

As Gary began to grow, he got a little worse, he gained sensory issues with wet grass and wouldn't set foot in it. Also, if you were holding him and wanting to give him a kiss, he would stick his forelegs straight out and keep them firm so you couldn't get close to his face. If that didn't work, he'd tilt his head as far away from you as possible. Gary grew very attached to me even though I treated all dogs the same and they always ended up liking my mother the most. He somehow gained an attachment to me and began sleeping at the end of my bed. Then he got ocd(which is entirely possible in dogs) and started to use his arms as hands. He would use his arms to "make a bed" or rather claw, bite, and pull fabric for anywhere up to five minutes and then lay down on the mass of blankets he made. Sometimes, he actually make his sleeping surface less comfortable when doing this.

Then, Gary became vocal. Gary wasn't originally a crazy barker but after about half a year, he started to bark at anything and everything outside or anybody who moved suddenly inside. He also taught himself to vocalize, or mimic speech a little by way of a mixture of whining and grunting repeatedly as well as a strange sort of howl that he does when he wants to play, he wants some table scraps, or hes just excited. Gary is two years old and the original pack matriarch died in February, and the Chihuahua, Fiona, is now the leader of the pack. Another Chihuahua came into our possession and although he is the smallest dog I've ever had, even he is more dominant then Gary and often bullies Gary even if they are really attached to each other. Gary continues to have all of the problems he has always had.

I have a strange connection with him. Like I said, I wasn't particularly nice to him, but somehow he got attached to me somewhere along the way. My mom said maybe he saw me as similar to himslef. Well i don't know. Anyways, he is my favorite thing in the world, hes my friend, my stress reliever, I just really love him.

Anyways, have any of you guys had any sort of special needs or even normal pets who act like they have Asperger's or any other similar thing?

I haven't had a pet like this, but I wanted to tell you that I really enjoyed your post. Take good care fo him.

That is a wonderful story!

I do not have an Aspie dog. I think the lady who wrote those books about cats having AS and dogs having ADHD was on to something! However, I do have a brain-damaged dog and he particularly unique. He is a Lab/something-or-other mix and took a truck going about 55mph to the head. It pulverized one of his shoulder blades (since partially removes), busted his pelvis, knocked him blind one eye and gave him mild epilepsy. He is also just plain goofy!

Right now he is curled up on the back of my couch whining at the doe that was in the front yard three days ago. In his mind she is still there. He is a very sweet and loving dog. He ADORES small children and people with special needs. He will cry until I take him to see a child (or any other human he sees). He helps me with people in this respect, and since he is a Lab people just assume he is friendly and let their children crawl all over him. I have seen him get bitten, smacked, yanked on and poked at by children and people with special needs, and he just loves it all! We are working towards therapy dog certification (he's already my therapy dog, why shouldn't he get to make more people happy?).

About six months ago, there was a tornado in the town where we live and I ended up fostering a litter of kittens that was found in a destroyed building. They were no more than six weeks old and just terrified. I had only adopted Buddy (my dog) a few weeks earlier and wasn't sure how he would react to the kittens, so I tried to keep him away from them. He wouldn't allow it! I brought one of the babies out and he licked him from head to tail. From that moment on, those were HIS kittens. He groomed them and as they got bigger, he started carrying them around in his mouth. All the people who met the kittens remarked on how calm and good-natured the litter was and asked what I had done. I told everybody that it had nothing to do with me, but everything to do with Mama Buddy!

He is a total and complete nutball, though. Just last week, he unscrewed a light bulb and chewed it up (he was perfectly fine). He starts fights with other dogs when he is on-leash (the vet knows me by my voice on the phone) and cannot be allowed off-leash, as he will run for miles! I have chased him through creeks, cornfields, compost piles, ponds, briars and lagoons. I have tackled him as he tried to catch a dump truck on the big road near our house. We don't go for walks, we go for drags-- even with a training collar on. He chases airplanes across the sky. He will start seizing in the middle of the night (partial-complex seizures) and wake me up because the bed is shaking so hard, but once it's over he just rests his head on my knee, like I'm the one who needs comforting. He is exceptionally gentle and very loving. He is not AS, but he is a very special dog and I wouldn't trade him for any other dog on the planet.

My mum and I think our dog Maggie is autistic because she goes to the toilet in the same spot when I walk her. She also once wouldn't enter mum's room when mum moved her bed to another side of the room.
She is a Jack Russell so barks at everything and has boundless energy but she's the most active JRT we've ever had. She's also very tall for one. We think she has ADHD as well. I've known active dogs, but this dog is active all day and sleeps only at night. I play with her and walk her but I can't seem to tire her out.
She makes those grunts and whines that Gary does.
She stares at the ceiling a lot. This could do with a cat that scratched her in the eye as a puppy.
She knows that she eats everyday at 5pm (she eats twice a day). I made up the 5pm thing as a part of my routine.
She doesn't like walking on grass. She does this strange hop when she walks on it.
She snaps at the air. This could be her eye problem, anxiety or seizures. She does it so much she will jump at the air and bite it. When I load or unload the washing machine she does it too.
She takes me on drags too. I have learned to use two hand to hold onto her leash. Once she wriggled out of her harness, a dog came by, she went to attack it but I held her with all my might and she attacked my arm. So now I walk her on a choke chain because she has broken about 5 collars we've bought her.
She chases cats, people, birds, cars, wind....you name it.

The cat that scratched her Marla was also showing autistic symptoms. Marla would not look you in the eye, even when you tried to force her too. I've known many cats that look me in the eye. Marla was a wobbly walker and couldn't balance on a fence like many cats do. She would also walk around the house making cooing sounds. How I loved that cat. but she got liver cancer and had to be put down.

I did enjoy that story about Gary.

shenlong , my mallowy has a somewhat similar
problem, here's the background

when our jubilee gave birth to a litter of six last year,
we kept 2 pups a boy & a girl, mallowy & whitena.
they were born inside the house that being the case
you would expect them to feel comfortable around
all of us but until now both of them are aloof
towards my parents, especially mallowy, he seems
to truly hate my mom, she'd be speaking a bit
loudly then he'd bark at her . when she would
try to pet him he'd run away barking acting scared
same with whitena.
it's so strange because my mom used to carry them
around the house when they were months old, i can't
remember when it started.
when i'm not home and my parents are the only ones
around , the two would be hiding in my room or
somewhere til i get home.
atleast we have the two older dogs(their parents) who
act like normal pets and love all of us.
the least i could be glad about is that they're not
snappy dogs and are very docile cept for that problem.