A Much Needed Update

Hello! Sorry for the long hiatus, but personal privacy issues on my blogs forced me to take a break from my blogs. It was hard for me to keep up as it was, but then, I had to take a break until some not-so-nice-people were not so interested in my family's life anymore.

Much has happened since I last posted and I promise to get you all caught up, but here's a little morsel for you. We just returned from a much needed vacation in Montana where my parents live on 120 acres in Western Montana. We had a great time riding horses, swimming, and spending quality time together. Sassy LOVED the open space and running around with our family dog, Rowdy. I think she could definitely get used to western country life--if she could only figure out the horses! Jack and Sassy had some great bonding, too. Though most of our training went out the window in this envirorment, it was a great break for all of us and we can't wait to get back for another visit.

Happy Easter from Sassy!

I wish that life wasn't so busy for me and that I could post more frequently. (Facebook seems to much easier for me to keep up!) We've had a rough go this last 2 months in our house with the flu/ear infections and, for Jack, some behavioral regressions that have kept me worried and busy. Now that the weather looks like it might be warming up (finally), it looks like we may be out of the woods!

We have the Autism Society of Oregon Walkathon coming up this weekend, so I'll be sure to post how we did!

In the meantime, our entire family and Sassy wishes you a belated Easter and hope that spring is coming to you whereever you may be.

Wonder Puppy Open House

Our beloved trainer, Casey Newton, has out done herself! Casey opened her new retail location for her business "Wonder Puppy" (www.wonder-puppy.com) today in the Pearl District in Portland, OR. Casey has been a part of our journey with Sassy since the 2nd week after Sassy joined our family and we couldn't have done it without her guidance, love and support. So we wanted to make sure we supported our Casey in her new business venture! Congratulations, Casey! The space is fantastic and beautiful, but it would be nothing without you and your passion and love for what you do! We love you!

Here are photos of Casey's wonderful vision brought to life! Introducing: "Wonder Puppy"!

Beautiful signage and logo!

Sassy relaxing in front of our "North Star" table

Our North Star table complete with brochures and Patty's DVD "Home after Dark" playing in the background and photos of Jack and Sassy.

These are "pup cakes" and dog cookies fit enough for humans to eat!

Retail portion of the space filled with many goodies and cute puppy supplies!

Cute!

Puppy bowls--so cute, I can't stand it!

Lots and lots of people came!


Lots of puppies showed up with their people, too!

Vanessa and Sassy through the tunnel

Sassy accepting love

Sassy greeting a nice lady

Vanessa & Sassy

Sassy and Me

Sassy LOVES Casey and so do we! Best of luck, Casey!

On a training side note: one of Sassy's biggest challenges is meeting new people and dogs. This event was great practice for her and she did very well! We are very proud that she was able to calm herself down within 10 minutes of being here. She also accepted many pets with grace and sitting!

Sassy's Famous!

Hi Everyone,

I am so sorry I haven't been posting much lately...our little household is on round 2 with the "crud" that has been going around school and everywhere else. On top of that, life just doesn't seem to slow down for anything lately.

We had a terrific training session with Jack and Sassy last Saturday (I would have taken photos, but my hands were full controling Jack). We begun the actual training to "find Jack" to Sassy and by the end of our session, she was responding to the command "Find Jack"! She's so awesome! Jack initially didn't want to do anything, but after a bit of "deep pressure", we were able to convince him to work hard.

This Saturday, our trainer, Casey Newton, is opening her first retail/training location for her new business "Wonder Puppy" (http://www.wonder-puppy.com/) and she is featuring our Sassy! I'll for sure be able to take pictures and promise to post them on the blog on Sunday. If you live in the Portland Metro area, please come!

(The photo is from a little while back, but I promise to have new photos soon.)

Training to "Find Jack"

I thought it was time to update you on our training with Sassy. We're working on Sassy's search and rescue skills and we are trying to teach her to "rescue Jack". The beginning stages is to play "hide and seek" with her and we've done that a few times in our house.

I wanted to try something a little different. We went to an open field and I had Jack run away. I had Sassy run to Jack and waited to see what she did if he started running away from her. She followed him and also began to "herd" him--cutting him off and trying to control the direction he was going. When I ran with her, she ran next to me and followed me. It was definitely interesting to watch.

We're only in the beginning stages, but it's good to see Sassy can differentiate between Jack and I and how she reacts if he runs away.

Sassy running to Jack

Sassy running after Jack

Sassy running with Jack

Treats from Jack

Tired Sassy

Hugs from Jack!

Dog Cribs for a Cause: A Fundraiser for the benefit of the North Star Foundation

(Ok, Carolyn, this one is just for you!)

Sorry, it's been so long between posts. Among other things in this crazy time, I've been working very hard on organizing a fundraiser for the North Star Foundation! Together with our trainer, Casey Newton of Wonder Puppy (http://www.wonder-puppy.com/), we are in the process of organizing a fundraiser in the Portland, Oregon area for the benefit of North Star.

This idea came to me as I was thinking about how I could give back to this wonderful organization that gave my Jack such a wonderful companion and friend at the same time, completing our family.

"Dog Cribs for a Cause" will work like this: we are gathering businesses, individuals, families to volunteer to be a "dog crib build team". They will design and create a dog "crib" (dog house)--we are looking to have anywhere from 5 to 15 dog build teams. The completed dog cribs will then be raffled off at an event in August of this year. Each team will campaign for their dog crib to win by selling raffle tickets for their house which equates to a vote for the team. The team with the most raffle tickets will win a nice prize. All proceeds will go specifically to fund North Star placements.

We are soliciting businesses in several communities: autism, design/architectual, building community, pet/dog community, children's services community and other miscellaneous communites. We are also going to try to get the print, tv and radio media on board.

We've had a wonderful response so far. We already have 3 build teams! (We're keeping their design ideas a secret!)

Patty will be coming to town just for our event! At the event, we'll have vendors and dog training demos--and we hope to get all the local North Star dogs to attend as well. (There are about 5 families in the WA/OR that have North Star Dogs.)

North Star Welcomes President Obama

Patty Dobbs Gross, the Executive Director of the North Star Foundation took one of their North Star dogs to Washington, DC for the inauguration. Her son, Dan, her inspiration for founding the North Star Foundation, produced the film. Patty and Dan's short film warms my heart and brings tears to my eyes.

Thank you, Patty, for your work with North Star, for choosing us to be a North Star family, and for your wonderful wisdom and words.

The Magic of Sassy

We have never doubted the effectiveness of Sassy's presence in our home, but today, she took her status in our house up several notches!

For the past few weeks, we have been waiting for Jack's bottom baby teeth to fall out. He has 2 bottom teeth fused together and his adult tooth had already begun growing in behind them. The dentist said that it was fine, it would eventually push the baby teeth out, so we waited and waited and waited... Jack would not let us wiggle it much or touch the teeth for that matter, so we just continued to wait...

This morning when Mike was brushing Jack's teeth, it began to bleed profusely. We had to wrestle Jack to the floor as he was freaking out about his tooth and the sight of blood coming out of his mouth. The tooth was hanging by a thread and was ready to come out. Jack wanted nothing to do with this whole process and was in a full screetch. Not wanting him to swallow it, we held him down and I literally just touched the tooth and out it came!

During all this comotion, Sassy was sniffing Jack and wondering what was happening to her boy. Jack continued to flail about, scream and cry. He did not accept any coddling so we just let him lay on the floor and continue "work it out". While Mike and I were examining the tooth, Jack suddenly stopped crying. We looked down and there was Sassy laying next to Jack on the floor and Jack was petting her. Sassy worked her magic and laid down next to Jack and calmed him down in a matter of seconds. Amazing. Truly amazing.

Sassy's Brother: Charlie the North Star Dog

Charlie with his boy Tim

I've been meaning to write about Sassy's brother, Charlie the North Star Dog and his boy, Tim. Tim's mom, Carolyn, also blogs http://charliethenorthstardog.blogspot.com/ about their journey with Charlie and Tim, and she found us on Blogger! We found out that Charlie and Sassy are full blooded siblings, born on December 10, 2007. They look so much alike, we can only tell them apart by their "boys".


My absolute favorite picture is Charlie and Tim at Halloween dressed up like Darth Vader and Yoda:

We are very excited to be connected to Charlie, Tim and their parents and look forward to meeting them some day! Thank you, Carolyn, for finding us!