My Awesome Pawtner Assistance Dogs

09/27/2015

5 weeks ago POGO had 2-3 days of refusing to eat any solid food (even homemade from scratch chicken and rice soup--all he would do was drink the broth) and all he wanted to do was just lay around looking very puny. By Sunday though he was eating again, wagging his tail, wanting to play ball and wrestle with Riley. I had planned on taking Riley to the vet on that Monday morning but decided that even though POGO was almost back to normal I would take him to the vet instead of RIley. He had lost weight (down from 106 lbs to just 91 lbs) but my vet did not feel that he had a blockage (he was pooping even if it was just the squirts because of not eating any solid food) but she ordered a set of abdominal xrays just to make sure. The vet tech kinda messed up when they did his xrays as she did not hold his right hind leg out of the xray and (I always say that God doesn't let things happen for no reason) when Dr. Cottrell looked at his xray she spotted IT! POGO has been diagnosed with bone cancer. He has a growth at the end of his right femur, just above the knee.
I have held off telling anyone because they wanted to redo the xrays after 2-3 weeks to determine how aggressive the cancer is. Needless to say I have been a total wreck the past 4 1/2 weeks, not wanting to say anything to anyone until I knew for sure what we were dealing with. I was back at the vets with POGO this morning (see the pic below) and Dr. Cottrell redid the xrays a 3rd time and while it has changed it is not a huge change so the feeling is that it is not as aggressive as she thought it might be.
POGO is having more good days (days where he wants to play ball and wrestle with Riley) than bad/out of sort days so we are just giving him pain meds (he will call them his "nee pills" when he is writing on fb) as needed. He is semi-retired as my mobility assistance dog, no weight-bearing tasks like wheelchair assisting, pulling the grocery cart, pulling the shopping bags in the cart I built for him (he will carry lightweight individual bags) or taking the kitchen trash bags out to the trash bins. He will still, as long as he feels up to it, continue to open/close doors, pick up items that I drop, go to the fridge, open the door, get momma a bottle of water and bring it to me, strip the bed and pull the laundry hamper (it is on wheels so lightweight and easy to move) to the laundry room for me. As long as he is feeling good and not in much pain we will take him camping, out in the boat and to the lake so he can swim out and bring back his bumpers.
Please keep us in your prayers as that is what he and I need the most right now. Thanks for being such an awesome group of family and friends. I know that we will get through this because of all of you.

05/25/2015

Riley is now 1 year old and while we are behind on our training schedule due to my not acquiring him until he was 4 1/2 months old, I decided to see if he would "take", "hold" and go give my husband the spoon I had used to eat my breakfast with. Pogo had already taken my cereal bowl to daddy in the kitchen and was going to come back for the spoon but I called Riley instead and asked him to "take". He didn't do it the first time I asked but he did take and hold the spoon the second time I asked him to. Then I told him to take it to daddy in the kitchen and he took off trotting to David and gave him the spoon when asked to "give". He earned a whole dog biscuit for his reward instead of the partial that they usually get for completing a task. WTG Riley! He may succeed at his training and be my new SD after all.

09/24/2014

Forgot to come to our page and introduce you all to the newest SDiT O'Reilly's Magnum Force or Riley as he will be called. Riley is a 4 month old male chocolate lab and I picked him out and brought him home Sunday afternoon. Right now we are just working on housebreaking and coming when called. The later is going great, he stops what he is doing and comes to me with a maximum of two "Riley Come"s but the first thing is a little harder to accomplish. It would be much easier if 1. he was 8 weeks old and not 18 weeks and 2. I could take him right out to the grass instead of either having to leash him to go out the front door, down the w/c ramp and then to the grass or out the back door to the deck and then down 8 steps to get to the grass. I can take him out back, scoot down the steps myself and sit out there for 15 minutes and he doesn't go, come back into the house and within 2 minutes he is squatting. He does go out the open back door and do #2 on the grass (so that is pretty much automatic already). He and a littermate were raised in a pen in a barn so he had no potty training until I got him Sunday. Here is a snapshot I took this morning of Riley, will post more pictures as I get decent ones.

05/05/2014

So true of assistance dogs

11/03/2013

Be sure and pick up a copy of the November issue of Four States Living Magazine, they did a great article on us. If you aren't in the area you can read the article at the link below. http://epubs.democratprinting.com/publication/?i=181797 #{"page":10,"issue_id":181797}

http://epubs.democratprinting.com/publication/?i=181797 #

10/31/2013

Watched the "Hero Dog Awards" tonight - thought you might like to see a few My Awesome Pawtner Assistance Dogs (and some in training) and their partners. ---Sue

10/17/2013

So God made a .

09/11/2013

Assistance Dogs leave BIG paw prints on your heart!!!!

The gift of having true friends!

08/26/2013

A lover will give you a KISS...
A friend will give you a HUG...
But a dog will give you his HEART...

08/16/2013

So true, especially the ones who become Assistance Dogs!! -Sue

And now we get to smile... :)

08/14/2013

One of the great auction items that will be available at the Dog Days of Summer Gala 2013 next Friday night, August 23rd at 7:00 p.m. Come join us for some food and fun!!!

One of the great auction items that will be available is a fire pit similar to this one.

08/12/2013

Miss Pip, Cindylou & Jax