The Adventures of Jackie-boy and Sassy

Sassy and Jack 2010

2011-01-26T13:22:00.000-08:00

April 2010 Autism Walkathon

Memorial Day Camping

Sassy watching her boy at the beach October 2010

Sassy and her kids October 2010

Sassy and family 2010

Sassy and Jack January 2011

A Much Needed Update

2009-07-06T20:59:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-14T22:09:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-10T19:59:00.000-07:00

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"

2009-02-22T14:40:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-18T21:06:00.000-08:00

(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

2009-01-24T19:22:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-09T11:40:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-06T19:53:00.000-08:00

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!

Sassy's 1st Vancouver Snow

2008-12-21T15:16:00.000-08:00

Even though Sassy was born in Connecticut, she isn't quite sure what to think of the snow. She doesn't want to be in the snow without one of us out there with her, so that is making potty breaks in this "arctic blast" weather we're experiencing difficult.

She was happy to come out and help shovel the drive way and, thankfully, was able to do her "business" while we were out there.

If there is one thing that I absolutely love, it's the precious moments Sassy has provided us. I love watching her with the kids--her patient and gentle nature with them and the love she shows all our kids, not just Jack. Here they are by the fireplace after spending the morning in the snow.

A look back at Halloween 2008: Incredible Hot Dog

2008-12-21T15:09:00.001-08:00

I realized that I never posted Sassy in her halloween costume--she was a hot dog! We couldn't come up with anything to match our costumes, so this was what we came up with! We were the Incredibles, so she was our incredible hot dog!

Round and Round they go

2008-12-18T10:14:00.000-08:00

Here's a cute game that Sassy and Jack play together.

April 2008: Jack and Sassy at Speech Therapy

2008-12-18T09:47:00.000-08:00

Here's some old footage I had of Jack and Sassy at speech therapy at PSU. I took it on my cell phone so the quality of the footage is not that great, but I thought it was cute. This was taken in April 2008 from the observation room.

Sassy is a Wonder Puppy!

2008-12-16T12:22:00.000-08:00

Oh how time flies! In November 2008, Sassy and I took the Canine Good Citizen test (CGC) http://www.akc.org/events/cgc/index.cfm and we became certified! We are so proud of her!

Sassy also turned 1 year old on December 10th! Happy Birthday, Sassy! We can't believe it's been a whole year since we first got the news that you had been born!

What's next for us? More specific training to make Jack and Sassy a great team! We can't wait to see what next year brings with more training and both Jack and Sassy maturing together. Stay tuned!

Great Puppy Graduation!

2008-08-14T18:14:00.000-07:00

Sassy graduation from the 2nd level (Great Puppy!) training class! We have one more level: "Wonder Puppy" which will conclude with the Canine Good Citizen Test. We'll continue public access training from there. We have a month break for now and will start level 3 on September 10th which goes for 6 weeks.

Congrats, Sassy! We're so proud!

Sassy & Jack 5 Months Later

2008-07-31T16:45:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow marks 5 months since Sassy joined our family. Despite still very much being a puppy (she's 8 months now), she has matured (and grown!) beautifully and has solidified herself as a member of our family. We are just about complete with the second level of training and have been doing several "public access" outings this month and will continue next month.

We started to allow Sassy to sleep in Jack's bed (she already slept in her crate in Jack's room) and they have been bonding even more. Jack is becoming even more attached to her and I suspect as Sassy becomes closer to being a full-fledged sevice dog, she will be able to be there for Jack a lot more.

The journey has not been easy, but we have traveled it willingly and with much love. We thank God and our family every day for bringing Sassy to her boy, Jack, and into our hearts.

These photos were taken today, July 31, 2008.

Sassy's First Road Trip: San Diego!

2008-07-10T15:19:00.001-07:00

Sassy took her first road trip to San Diego this June. She did great on both the 2 day driving down and the 2 days traveling home. She also got to meet Jack's Aunt Kristin, Uncle Mike, new baby cousin, Alex, and their dog Fletcher! She had a great time at the sights and dog parks that San Diego has to offer.

Here's Sassy and Fletcher's 1st meeting

Here she is enjoying some cuddles with Colette and Vanessa

As you can see, Sassy really took a liking to Fletcher.

Here they are in the car on their way to Kate Sessions Dog Park for a play date. The next few shots are Sassy and Fletcher at Kate Session's dog park.

Here's the dogs at Balboa Park with Aunt Kris

Here they are at the Balboa Park dog park.

We had a great time and we think Sassy did too! We love San Diego and can't wait to go back :)

Sassy Graduates!

2008-05-15T09:21:00.000-07:00

Sassy graduated from her first level of obedience class on May 7th! We have a long way to go, but she is doing wonderful! She is still a puppy and can be a bit naughty at times, but all-in-all, she is an amazing dog and we are so happy to have her in our lives.

Thankfully, we are almost through her teething stage--about a month left or less. I had one pair of shoes take one for the team--it was my fault for leaving them out for the picking! Our next class begins June 11th :)

Speech Therapy Wonders!

2008-04-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

Jack has been attending the Speech and Hearing Clinic Program at Portland State University for nearly 2 years now. He attends clinic for one hour 2 times a week with a graduate student clinician who is working on their Masters Degree in speech pathology.

This term, they offered to have Sassy join the sessions as a tool in his speech therapy. While it can get a bit hairy at times, they are all doing beautifully! Here's a shot of them from the observation room.

Autism Walkathon 2008

2008-04-14T19:42:00.002-07:00

We participated in the Autism Society of Oregon Walkathon for the first time this year. It was extra special for us because we also were able to walk with Sassy! Our team "Jack's Pack" was made up of our family, Grandmom & Pop, Eileen & Declan, and Bern & Shawn. Thanks to all who pledged our team! It all went to a great cause!

Jack and Sassy at the Beach

2008-04-10T10:05:00.001-07:00

Sassy visited the Oregon Coast for the first time in her short life last weekend. She really enjoyed playing in the sand. Jack and Sassy are doing so well together. They both are looking forward to our next trip to the beach!

Sassifactor: Week 4

2008-03-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

This marks the 4th week since Sassy joined our family. What an eventful week it has been. We, with our fingers crossed, believe that Sassy is fully potty-trained, as we have not had an accident in over 2 weeks. (Really, it is her people who are now dog-reading trained, as we can now accurately (and timely) read the signs imminent to a doggy elimination.)

Jack and Sassy continue to grow closer, as do Vanessa, Josie and Colette. (Mike and I, too.)
Sassy seems to have learned that her family "job" is to be a friend to her boy, Jack. She has learned to remain calm when he is playing a little bit annoying to her. This week she remained in a calm sitting position while Jack played with a puppet in and around her face without nipping at the puppet or getting angry at Jack. It was a beautiful moment--too bad I couldn't grab the video camera at that time.

Sassy also succesfully learned to fetch this week! It's unbelievable how much more fun it is to play fetch when your dog actually "fetches" the ball and lets go when you ask! So much fun!

Sassy also scored her own "bling" this week. Is this not the cutest dog tag you've ever seen?

I now have another photography subject. She is learning to put up with Mommy's annoying photography habits as well. I will make her a good doggy model yet!

I love this pose:

Here's Sassy, giving me the Sassiest Vogue pose:

A bit of melodrama pose:

If I could photograph every single one of our hearts, you would find Sassy deeply planted inside of them, including Colette, who thoroughly enjoys the Sassy kisses her chubby little feet get on a regular basis.

North Star's Patty's Principals

2008-03-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

Finally! As promised--Sassy Videos!

2008-03-25T21:04:00.000-07:00

This is footage from the airport when we first met Sassy. It was a bit chaotic especially because we were in the baggage claim area. Sassy also was very stressed from her long trip from Connecticut. It was about 9:30 PM and so it was passed everyone's bedtime, too. (Note Josie)The other family in the airport video is from Beaverton. Their son received "Daizy" Sassy's half sibling.

Here is Jack, Vanessa and Sassy playing around. This video was taken probably about 2 weeks after we got Sassy. I can't remember when I took it.

This is Jack with Sassy just hanging out together. It was last week some time.

Lastly, this is Jack and Sassy yesterday. I think you can tell how comfortable they have become around each other.

Sassification: Week 2

2008-03-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

It only gets better. Jack and Sassy are quickly becoming buds. Jack often tells her all the names of the various trains in Thomas the Train & friends. He also likes to sit and pet her while watching movies. The first thing he says when he gets off the school bus is: "Where's Sassy?"

I had my first puppy training class this week (sans dogs). Apparently, people need to be trained first. The training is held at social dog club in the Pearl District (http://www.lexidog.com/) and the classes are run by Portland Paws http://www.portlandpaws.com/index.html. It's unbelievable to see the amount of obscene spoiling going on with dog owners, but Lexi Dog is a hip and nice place (while it is very clean, it still is a bit smelly because it is also a doggy daycare) to take lessons. It makes me feel like I'm part of the Paris Hilton club of dog owners even though I can't carry Sassy in a Louis Vutton handbag. I guess if I am going through the pain (and fun) of puppy training, I might as well feel like a "hip" and "now" dog owner. That's hot.

I learned a couple of ways to adjust my current clicker training technique and it worked like a charm! I am looking forward to next week's class (with dogs) so I can learn more. The North Star Foundation is also providing a private trainer (who happens to be the teacher of our puppy kindergarten class) come to the house 3 times a month and 1 time in public to practice public access training. It's a lot of work, but I'm committed and motivated to have our little Sassy be the best service dog she can be. I know she'll make me proud.

We are very excited as Jack's speech therapy program at Portland State University has offered to incorporate Sassy into Jack's sessions next term! That will be very exciting to see. It will be a great learning experience for all.

Sassy and Josie are getting along better as well. Josie no longer cries and drops to the floor every time she sees her. They now seem to have a better understanding of each other. It's funny to watch them interact and see that they are becoming friends. Sassy already looks out for her and goes to her when she is crying or calling for help.

I will try to have video up soon. With the 4 kids and Sassy, its been tough for me to grab the video camera because I usually have Colette in one hand the entire day. It's a very chaotic dance I do, but, so far, I am making it work. (Which isn't to say that I don't need a glass of wine every now and again. (I type as I sip my glass of wine. It's yappy hour at our house.)) I will try to get some footage up from this weekend when Mike is around.

Until then...

One Week Later...

2008-03-08T11:20:00.001-08:00

Wow! What a week! Sassy has been wonderful and has incredible potential. That said, we have a long way to go. I am still trying to get my bearings trying to manage 4 kids (especially nursing), a puppy, household matters, a part-time law practice, volunteering, chauffering and advocating for Jack. I think I am certifiably insane for taking on as much as I do, but I feel passionate about everything that I do and taking on too much is exactly what makes me who I am.

We've been working with Sassy to give us a "default sit"--where she sits EVERY time she approaches or is approached by a person, or when waiting for a treat, or when in doubt. She's at about 70-80% which is great. She needs to work on walking on a leash and not jumping on the kids. We start Puppy Kindergarten on March 12th, but in the meantime, we are trying to get some basics down.

Poor little Josie, at first, was so afraid when Sassy would approach her, she would drop to the floor cover her little face and cry. Sassy would think she wanted to play and essentially mount her and chew on her pigtails. While I know Sassy was not really hurting her, it was a bit of a disturbing site. Now, Josie goes right up to her and pets her, plays a version of fetch with her, and is not dropping to the floor any more. (Whew!)

Jack has been warming up to Sassy so much. He initially didn't want Sassy to approach him, but now he calls Sassy over to him. He is still a bit frantic around her, but she is doing really well with him and seems to know to be gentle around Jack and Josie.

Jack enjoys taking Sassy for a walk and feeding her. He also likes to tell her about all his trains and the movies he watches.

This past week was just the tip of the iceberg, we'll have more to come!

She's Here!

2008-03-02T20:39:00.000-08:00

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!

All Ready For Sassy!

2008-02-28T17:08:00.001-08:00

Two more days and counting! We have everything we need. Here's Jack displaying Sassy's stuff:

We got a "Vittles Vault" for Sassy's food and we poured the food in today. The food, Canidae, is what she's been eating in Connecticut and North Star recommended we keep Sassy on this food. It's pretty fancy-pants food as we can only get it at Natural Pet Northwest Store! (Sorry Aunt Kris (who works for PETCO))

Sassy's dog crate is set up in Jack's room. Here's Jack showing off his new set up.

As recommeded by Aunt Kris, we got a ped bed from Costco so that Sassy has a spot downstairs where she can relax. It makes the kids smell like pine chips.

We also have a bunch of cool dog toys and treats that Aunt Kris and Uncle Mike sent up from San Diego. So we are all set to have Sassy on Saturday! We are all very excited and can't wait to meet her.

What are the benefits of an Autism Service Dog?

We often have people ask us why did we decide to get Jack a service dog. Many people only know of seeing-eye dogs for the blind or assistance dog for people with physical disabilities.

In a nutshell, the benefits of having an autism sevice dog are plentiful! Sassy will eventually be trained to hold an "extended down" when Jack is having a melt-down to help calm him. Most people's first reaction when a dog sits at their feet is to pet the dog. It's been shown that the act of petting a dog is very calming and somewhat theraputic. As you read in the story below, it definitely works for Jack.

Also, North Star's "Service Dog in Training" vest that Sassy will wear says: "Please ask to pet me" to encourage people to ask Jack to pet his dog and initiate conversation with him. It will help him interact with the general community who would otherwise just walk by him.

Because autism often makes children socially awkward, Sassy will be as Jack's special friend. Someone who he will always be able to count on being there for him without judgment and without the need for traditional social interaction that is needed by his peers. Since Jack doesn't have "friends" (in the same way that Vanessa does anyway), he will at the very least, have Sassy.

All other general benefits of having a pet apply too. Although there are many other benefits, I just wanted to focus on the ones that will make a huge difference in Jack's life. For more information on the benefits, visit: http://www.northstardogs.com/autism.shtml.

Four days and counting...

2008-02-27T11:16:00.000-08:00

Jack has been fairly good lately. He hasn’t had many melt downs and can usually be “talked” out of getting upset or into doing something he doesn’t particularly want to do.

However, today, Jack woke up from his nap in a particularly bad mood. I can always tell when he wakes up in a bad mood because he immediately starts whining about every little thing in a deep, guttural whine. He asked me to put in a VHS Thomas movie into our main TV and I complied because I had to start making dinner. Vanessa asked me if she could watch a movie on our portable DVD player (in the same room). Normally, this solution prevents a fight over the TV. This time for whatever reason, it really upset Jack. He wanted to put a different Thomas DVD in the portable DVD player and watch both movies at the same time. Obviously, this is unacceptable and unfair for Jack to monopolize both TVs and I refuse to give in to that sheer and blatant selfishness.

I asked Jack to pick which movie he wanted to watch. He chose the DVD, so I proceeded to stop the VHS Thomas movie and inserted Vanessa’s choice. Jack immediately started to ramp up to “melt down”. I started to negotiate with him and say that it was his choice: pick a movie and let Vanessa have the other TV or a time out (this generally works for him). He continued to ramp up and refused to share. I gave him one more chance to make a choice, but he refused to share. So, I brought him to the time out chair and he continued to ramp up further and quickly. By this time, although it had only been a short period of time, I was losing patience because of the blatant selfishness and unrealistic demands he was displaying—even he knew that taking up both TVs was not fair.

I was cooking dinner and had to step away so that I wouldn’t burn dinner. He started throwing the throw pillows off the chair. I internally ramped up and could feel myself losing my temper. But as I turned to go to Jack again, I caught a glimpse of the life-sized, stuffed golden retriever we got to prepare Jack for his service dog. I ran and grabbed it and started to bring it to Jack. By this time, Jack had gotten off the time out chair and was running towards me full speed ahead (he was that mad). I dragged both the dog and Jack back to the time out chair, which only made him unravel further. As soon as I got Jack sitting, I said: “Pet Sassy! Pet her now!” Jack hesitated for barely a nanosecond to process what I was telling him to do, then started to pet her head. Not hard, just deliberately.

A remarkable thing happened. Within about 10 seconds of him starting to pet the dog, he stopped crying and yelling. I could see on his face that the act of petting the dog had distracted him enough to just take a breath and calm himself down. I couldn’t believe how fast it worked and that it worked with a stuffed animal. He stopped petting her and I told him to keep petting her and he complied. He then looked me in the eyes and then hugged me without saying a word. I asked him if he was ready to share and be a nice boy and he nodded his head “yes”. I told him he could go, but he had to take Sassy with him. So he dragged the dog with him and sat down and watched his movie.

This entire episode transpired in only about 5-10 minutes. I was in awe. Just think, if he was this receptive with Sassy the stuffed dog, how incredible having Sassy the real dog will be for him. Sassy will be here in 4 days and I am counting down every second…