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!

Sassy's 1st Vancouver Snow

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

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!