She's Here!

She's here!!!!! Sassy arrived safely at Portland International Airport last night. Unfortunately, her flight was delayed, so it made for an incredibly chaotic introduction and a very hasty exit for Patty (North Star Foundation founder) and her husband, Ron, who were delivering 2 pups: one to a family in Beaverton and one to us.

Sassy was very tired, very hungry, and VERY stressed when we met her, so it took some time to calm her down before we left the airport and also once we got home (understandibly so). She is a SUPER SOFT, SUPER CUTE, puppy with a fantastic disposition that clearly comes from her superior breeding at North Star. Here are some photos of her arrival:


Just a few minutes after meeting. Jack was very apprehensive, but excited to meet Sassy. Like he has demonstrated with other dogs, he prefers to observe from a distance before touching or directly interacting with the puppy. He handled the chaos of our greeting quite well, however, and agreed to take this photo with me as long as I held Sassy very tight. Sassy is a cuddle-bunny, and given how stressed out she was, she wanted to be cuddled tight, too.




This is Patty, North Star Foundation's founder and Sassy's breeder as well. She is also the mother of 4 and a son living with autism, but he's all grown up now and is currently attending college in the East.

Here's Sassy a bit after we arrived home. She was a very tired pup! She did quite well her first night here. As instructed, she spent the night in her doggy crate (dogs are "den" animals and by nature crave a place of their own--in her crate she will feel safe and will rest well). She did not whine or cry! She only had to be let out once during the night to eliminate.

Today, we dedicated the whole day to getting to know Sassy. We spent the morning just being with her, playing in the backyard and allowing her rest because she's still a pup and especially because she is still making a major adjustment. She appeared to be very comfortable in our home and seems to know that we are now her people. We also took a trip to Natural Pet Store NW, where she got a collar, some training treats and a lot of attention from the staff! There were a ton of dogs and their people in the store and Jack walked around saying: "Wow! Look at all the dogs!"

After our trip to the store, we headed to the park and let the kids play. Sassy sat at my feet and watched very relaxed. We then took a test walk around the park with the stroller. She was great, but definitely needs more leash training, especially with the stroller.

Here are some photos of this evening:
Vanessa took to Sassy right away. Since Jack is still somewhat hands-off Sassy, its great that Vanessa is so hands on. Josie likes Sassy, but is still scared to get near her when she is awake. Josie sneaks in petting when Sassy is sleeping.


Here's Vanessa, Sassy & Jack. As you can see, he's the furthest from her.

I did get him to pet Sassy, but as soon as she turned her head towards him, he backed off. But he really does enjoy petting her as long as she stays real still.

Here's Jack feeding Sassy.

Here's Jack brushing Sassy. He liked this because he didn't have to be too close to her to brush her since the brush gives him a few extra inches of length.

Here's Jack reading Dr. Seuss' ABC. Isn't that cute?

Here are some shots of our little lady:



In less than 24 hours she has completely won over our hearts. We can't wait to start this journey from pup to service dog with her. We think she's going to be great! Jack is constantly talking to her even though he keeps a short distance from her when she is awake.

We chose the North Star Foundation to adopt a service dog for Jack because of their philosophy: placing their emphasis on superior breeding in placing dogs with children living with autism and in placing the dogs with the child much earlier than other organizations. Normally, Sassy would be going to a "puppy raising family" in our area for a few months (who would volunteer to raise Sassy a bit more for us) to whom we would visit regularly. This family would not necessarily have any training experience, but would be able to focus on her basic training. Once she had reached a point of achieving her basic training, we would then take her and begin specifically on the assistance dog portion of training with her.

We decided to be our own puppy raising family so we could share a deeper bond with Sassy by going through the basic training with her. Also, we knew how difficult it would be for Jack (and us) to only get to visit Sassy while at the puppy raiser's house. Lastly, what a HUGE commitment to ask someone to do for you free of charge. I had trouble finding a family that had one parent at home at least part-time who could commit to raising our puppy. I am home full-time, so I am available to spend a great deal of time with Sassy. So this is how we came to getting Sassy so young. I spent the last 2 months reading the recommended training books and I am looking forward to being her handler because, even this early in our training, I have gained a ton of knowledge about canine behavior and people. I am excited to see the techniques put to work with Sassy. We will be teaching Sassy clicker training and I can't wait to see the results as she is already a wonderful puppy that listens very quickly. We begin our puppy kindergarten class on March 12th!

Ok, off to get everyone in bed! Thanks for checking in!