This is a work-in-progress.  The first few paragraphs are something they asked me to put together at ADAI, and the following are notes from e.mails back up to the trainers at ADAI.  This is only for true Alex-addicts.

Jack.  That’s what his first family called him when they brought him home, a little fluffy black ball of needle-teeth and paws that seemed much too big for the rest of him.  Jack.  He never knew his mother and father.  Well, he sort of remembered a warm body where he nursed for a while, but that’s about all.  And the longer he went on, the fuzzier that memory became. 

Jack.  Why did they even bother giving him a name?  They didn’t keep him long enough for him to rightly learn it.  He was only about six months’ old, almost 50 pounds of rambunctious playful puppy, growing into those oversized feet, when the family decided they couldn’t handle him, and off he went to the pound.  Oh, they called it the Toledo Animal Shelter, but it was the pound, and it wasn’t a nice place.  He got fed, all right, and had a place to sleep out of the weather, but no one played with him or rubbed his ears or even talked to him.  He was just a big gangly eating and barking machine, and no one seemed to care. 

Sometimes people would come to the pound looking for pets, and Jack would jump up and down and spin around and bark to try to get their attention.  He didn’t know that his adolescent antics were scaring people off rather than making him look attractive.  No one took him home, and it looked as though the pound would abandon Jack, too, just like his first family had.  If no one wanted him, he’d probably have to be destroyed.

Assistance Dogs of America, Inc. (ADAI) locates, trains and places highly skilled service and therapy dogs with disabled adults and children to help them become more independent.  They are dedicated to training 'throwaway' dogs rescued from animal shelters, and/or dogs donated by pet owners.  It was one of the trainers from ADAI who came and looked at Jack.  It was Mechele who, looking in Jack’s liquid brown eyes saw an intelligence that she knew could be used to channel all that energy and enthusiasm.  Jack had found a new home.

Even here the home was a temporary one.  Jack was taken back to the ADAI training facility for observation.  He still wasn’t home free.  He still had some proving to do.  But, first things first.  The name Jack was too common, especially for a highly trained service dog.  They looked at him, and pondered his personality.  Alex

Blasted dog!  When I am trying to use the computer and he wants (demands) attention, he gets right up next to me and "noses" my forearm.  Makes it real hard to type.  Right now he is behind me just whipping the heck out of a large stuffed bunny.  The way he slings it up in the air I expect it to land on my keyboard any time now.

This morning, when I put Alex out back for his "morning constitutional," he started barking and barking.  Usually it is just a single bark, so I knew something different was going on.    I looked out and he was confronting a toad that was bigger than a softball.  He wasn't trying to bit it . . . he just was barking at it.  Then the toad raised up on all fours, as though he was going to jump at Alex, and, boy, did he back up fast!  I finally had to go out and BRING him in.  He sure wasn't going to listen to my COME command when there was such a fascinating creature to harass.

He's taught me a new trick, too.  In the morning, when I am sitting in my recliner trying to read my paper, he'll stand in front of me, do a play bow, grin (showing just his lower front teeth), and give out with a loud RUFFF!  I'll try to tell him NO, but he'll keep it up until I put a cover on the couch, and change over from my recliner to the couch and invite him up next to me.  He even has his own pillow on the couch that he rests his head on.  Then he'll finally shut up and let me read.  BLASTED DOG IS JUST TOOOOOO DARN SMART!

We took Alex and my son's Labrador, Shelby, to a pet park on Thursday.  There weren't many other dogs there, and Alex and Shelby stayed pretty much by themselves.  However, it was obvious that other dogs HAD been there, and Alex's dominance kicked in.  He had to mark as many upright things as he could.  Poor guy, he just couldn't drink enough water to produce enough "marking fluid," and he was squeezed dry in a short while.  Didn't stop him from trying, and he ended up doing a lot of "dry lifts."  He was trying so hard to squeeze something out that at one point he finally squeezed out some other by-product.  He was embarrassed.

Today I took him for a one-mile "walk."  He walked and I was on my bike, but I promised him that this time we'd go at his speed and he could stop and sniff and mark everything he wanted.  Marilyn, I didn't count, but he had to go way over the 17 that you once counted.

I've got several doors rigged for him to TUG shut, and he also slams the bedroom door shut when I tell him to PUSH it.  Instead of pushing with his nose, which doesn't always get it closed, he jumps up and slams it with his paw.

We still are not doing real well with PHONE.  He'll pick it up from the floor, but we are still working on his getting it from the desk.

Conveniently the building in which I am teaching, two days a week, has handicapped doors, so Alex is practicing his TOUCH.  It needs a LOT of work, but we'll be teaching there until Christmas, so he'll have a lot of time to practice.

I will confess to not have good control over him when Chris and Molly are in the kitchen, and he wants to be.  But if I can get him into the family room in a DOWN STAY, I can pretty much pin him in place by staring and showing him a treat.  Actually, he'll hold that DOWN STAY for 10-15 minutes while Chris feeds Molly.  [If Molly comes and he doesn't when I call him, I give her a treat to chew loudly.  It generally gets his attention.]

He still tries hard to avert his head when it is time for his vest and his Halti.  Stubborn! 

Marilyn, I'm pretty sure his weight is still good.  I'm going to take him to Publix next week and weigh him on a big scale they have there for public use.

All of my students love Alex, but especially the young females.  And, of course, he loves the young females.  They all want to bring him treats, and consider me an ogre for not allowing it.

Well, that's about it for now.

I've had a number of y'all asking for information about Alex, so here goes.

Alex is doing well, and is quickly acclimating to south Florida.  Of course,
air conditioning does help a lot.  And he is having fun playing, on
occasion, with Jonathan's Labrador, Shelby.  They get play fighting, two 70+
pound dogs, and we have to throw them out back before they totally destroy
the house.

Alex loves going to school with me.  All of the girls adore him, and he gets
a lot of attention.  I have to keep an eye on the girls, though, because
they all want to bring treats for him.  So far I have been successful in
fending them off.  His diet is pretty well circumscribed in order to keep
his weight under control.

I know.  That's not what you wanted to hear about.  OK.  Well, we have had
to purchase child-proof latches for the kitchen cabinets.  It didn't take
him long to figure how to pull open the cabinet under the sink where the
garbage can is.  He's too darn smart.  Chris has a pine cabinet, in the
kitchen, where she used to keep the cat and dog food.  Notice the use of the
past tense.  The door was old-timey, and closed with a small piece of wood
turning on a screw through it.  Old smartdog figured very quickly how to get
a hold of the latch and turn it with his mouth, then grab the knob and pull
the door open.  Once inside he found a large coffee can full of dog food
(Chris keeps the 50# bag in the garage, and just brings in a few pounds at a
time), took it out, removed the top, and chowed down.  Needless to day he
didn't have much appetite for his own meal later that night.  Nor the next
morning, actually.

He also has taught us not to leave dirty dishes in the sink.  He goes in,
takes them out, and cleans them for us.  Such a helpful puppy.

I bought a contraption called a Scat Mat for the kitchen counter.  It is 3"
wide and 46" long, and has a 9 volt battery which charges it to give a small
shock to creatures hopping up to survey the possibility of food left out.
It is effective, except that whereas Alex has learned to try to avoid it,
Chris had not, and she keeps hitting it and shocking herself.  I'll not
comment any more on that.

Though Alex likes to roughhouse, he has no interest in chasing balls or
Frisbees or the like.  To give him some exercise I have been going out for
some round-the-block outings with him on my recumbent tricycle.  It's pretty
hot, still, so I take it easy, and he just lopes along beside me.  Last week
I decided to go around the block just for him, and allow Alex to sniff
everything he wanted.  TOOK FOREVER!  Not only the sniffing, but the
marking.  He ran dry one-half way around, but that didn't stop him from
trying.  Lots of dry lifts.

Alex still likes to wake me at 0630 for breakfast.  His techniques is still
a wet nose in the face.  Oh, well.  It's love, I guess.  Or at least love
for food.  We've gotten into a habit of my asking him to find his bowl and
get it for me.  He goes crazy.  He picks the bowl up and flips it up in the
air, races after it, tries to grab it and toss it again.  It's cute.  Loses
something in the translation, though.  He is also real good at bringing me
empty catfood bowls, Molly dogfood bowls, or any other container which he
believes should be filled with food and presented to him.

He won't retrieve balls, but food bowls . . . he is a field champion.

Shoes, too.  Chris likes to take off her sandals and leave them behind the
corner of the sectional just as she goes into the kitchen.  Perfect for
Alex, who will bring one of them to me in my study.  Chris has learned that
if she is missing one shoe, check the study.  Also good place to look for
dishrags, kitchen towels, or the little throw rug that used to reside in
front of the refrigerator.

I took Alex to a doctor's appointment at the VA, a few weeks ago.  The
doctor was afraid of him, but was pretty cool about it.  He just tried to
keep a close eye on Alex, and be wary if he moved.  Anyway, he wanted me up
on an exam table.  As I transferred over to it from my wheelchair Alex
thought it must be time for us to nap together, and began to jump up with
me.  I had to disappoint him and tell him "no," and tried to get him to lie
up against the wall at the head of the bed.  Nope.  He was bound and
determined to stretch out alongside the table, effectively blocking the
doctor.  Luckily there was another VA employee there, so I told him to just
push Alex's butt out of the way.  Rudy reached down, grabbed Alex by the
rear, and folded him into a "C" shape on the floor.  Alex never even looked
up.  Talk about laid back!  Chris had to do that to him at church, a couple
of weeks ago.  I'll get him settled into a good position, but then he'll
shift and move just a bit further out.  Then again.  And again, until he
ultimately is in an aisle blocking the way.  So Chris just got up, and
pushed him bodily back out of the way.  Again, Alex never lifted his head.
The others sitting nearby thought it was a riot, though.

Alex has been trained to use his bark only when necessary, which is great.
Molly loves to hear herself bark, which can be really annoying, but he is
usually pretty quiet.  Chris bought some big marrowbones for Alex and Molly
and Shelby, the other day.  Now I know what it takes to elicit a bark from
Alex.  There will be bones lying all around, but he'll invariably want the
one Molly has.  So he'll just stand over her and let loose a deep, loud
"WOOF!"  Then he waits.  Usually poor Molly gets the point, stands up, and
walks away letting him steal her bone.  If she leaves that one to go work on
another, then we'll see the action again.  Like the old farmer who didn't
want all the land, just that which touched on his.

Alex is a terrible-two, at times, and keeps us on our toes, but he is
wonderful to have.  I was sitting in the shower, the other day, re-grouting,
when the phone rang.  "Alex, phone."  And he grabbed it and brought it to
me.  He is helping open and tug close doors, he picks up clothes and other
things I drop on the floor, and he carries things from me in the study to
Chris in the kitchen and back.  Plus, at school, he's a real "chick magnet."

As I write this boy is stretched out UNDER my wheelchair.  I'm stuck.  If I move at all I'll roll over his head.

As I believe I've mentioned I take Alex on an occasional walk/jog on my recumbent trike.  I like to let him get as much sniffing and marking done as he wants, but with the 6' leash and his Halti, he hasn't been able to get very far from the trike, and I can't ride over the grass for him.  Well, we got one of those 26' spring-loaded reel leashes, AND HE LOVES IT!  He still hate wearing his Halti, so when we went out for a mile last night I finally clipped the lead to his blue collar, put the Halti in my pocket, and let him roam.  He was in hog heaven, and since the thing is spring-loaded it was a lot easier on me, also (not having to worry about the leash dragging on the ground and getting wrapped around the axle).  What amazed and amused me was that Alex knew enough to come back to me whenever we passed a tree or mailbox so he wouldn't get wrapped around it.  Fascinating.

Poor thing.  I'm having an attack of fall allergies, and I don't believe in stifling sneezes.  I just let one rip, and I think he believed it was the end of the world.