Welcome
to aussiedoodle dreams. I am a very small scale breeder where my dogs
are part of my family and live with us in the home. All puppies are
raised under foot with constant love and affection from everyone in the
house.
It
all started with one dog, Max, a beautiful parti colored aussiedoodle.
We had been looking for a service dog for our children, but we quickly
found out that companies/agencies that train dogs would not train a dog
for us due to the dynamics of our family. I have three sons, all of them
are on the autism spectrum and have different needs. Our oldest son was
born at 27 weeks and is the most impacted by autism. With hard work and
dedication he is presently functioning at his age/grade level with
minimal issues. His biggest problem is anxiety caused by a change to his
routine/schedule.
Our
middle son was born full term with minimal problems. He was completely
on target and then everything changed, he went from complete sentences
to screaming with no speech. Again with dedication and determination we
were able to pull him out of it. He has epilepsy which is controlled by
medication. He is in the aspergers range with mathematical and nonverbal
reasoning skills being his strongest areas. He is our little Einstein.
Our
youngest seems to be the least impacted, but at this point we are very
good at providing interventions to decrease the impact of autism. He has
a few moments every day where his autism is visible, but overall he is
doing very well.
I can
credit our success to my education and experience. Ironically I am a
special education teacher and had been teaching for four years prior to
having children. I have my B.S. and M.A. from the University of South
Florida and I have my Ed.S. from Lincoln Memorial University. All of my
degrees are in the area of special education.
So how
and why did we pursue a service dog? The main goal that we had for the
service dog was to distract our oldest son when anxiety became an issue.
We also wanted to have our two oldest sons hold the harness and leash
when out at a store. Stores are difficult places for them, it is noisy
with many lights, and people. Max has been successful at filling both of
these needs. We had spent many hours searching for a service dog and
tried to go through a service dog company. We found that service dog
companies will train a dog for only one person and with our needs being
greater than that we were quickly eliminated. I had previously trained a
dog many years ago for therapy work, a standard poodle named Sam. So we
began our search for a dog that I could train. We had washed out four
(different breeds) dogs before finally getting Max. Max came from a
breeder that only breeds aussiedoodles and she frequently retires dogs
and donates them to a service dog training company. Max's father was
donated and trained for service work. Max's mother is retired and lives
with a great family in the lap of luxury.
Max has
done so well, he was very easily trained. Housebroken in the first day
and began his outings at the end of the first week. I was able to teach
him sit, down, stay, and come in less than one hour. The "watch me"
command took a little more time, but with the clicker and treats he
responded quickly. We wanted him to have a playmate, so we started
looking. We went with a standard poodle, Maggie. She came from a small
breeder and I had asked for the litter to be temperament tested prior to
making my choice. She was it and we couldn't be happier.
So why
breed? Well, we weren't intending on breeding, but it seemed a shame to
have found the most perfect dogs and not be able to share. We are still
able to have Max work. So far there has been no change in his abilities
due to him being unneutered. However, when and if that does change we
will have to neuter him. We are planning on keeping a puppy from a
litter so that his legacy can continue.
UPDATE FALL 2013
Since the
start of our adventure we have had many changes. Our oldest son is not
needing Max as much as he did when we began our adventure. Our youngest
son is now needing Max and does very well in situations that were
challenging for him. Overall, Max is not utilized to the fullest extent,
he works on an as needed basis and enjoys just spending time with the
boys in the house.
We
have also found ourselves with additional challenges. My husband,
Jeremy, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in September of 2011. At
the time he was diagnosed with the relapsing remitting form, which is
what 80% of those with MS have. However, as time has gone on and his
symptoms have worsened (with no remission) the Doctor has re-diagnosed
him with Primary Progressive MS, the worst form. We thought life was
challenging before with three children diagnosed with autism, now it has
become even more of a challenge for us. Honestly, we believe that
everything happens for a reason, our challenges have made us stronger.
We look at life in a different way than before, we cherish every moment
and enjoy the simple things.
With
the new challenges I am needed at home, this is the first year (in 12
years) that I am not teaching in the public school system. I am much
happier at home taking care of my family. I still get to teach, I am
homeschooling my children, I am loving every minute of it. Since I am at
home I have invested in a couple additional puppies which I plan to
breed, but they have to grow and that takes some time.
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