Harriet the Service Dog!

     This picture of me was taken almost two years ago. Yes, I know I was adorable. Lots of dog bones have gone over the bridge since then. But I want to tell you what's happened since my last update - when I went to Puppy College last August.
     Actually, it's called Canine Companions for Independence Professional Training. But I call it Puppy College because, when someone asks my PR mom, "How can you give up your puppy after raising her all these months?" she answers, "It's like sending your child to college. You miss her, but you want her to be there. And you hope she'll graduate and get a job."               
     I don't have many pictures for this update, but I can still tell you about it. (It'll take longer, though.) And I'll give you a link further down the page so you can see something else interesting if you want to.
     Puppy College is different from home. We sleep in kennels. A kennel is a crate, only it's the size of a small bathroom. They give us roommates, so we're never lonely. The music of a dozen and a half dogs all singing together in an acoustically perfect doggy dorm is... lovely! After you get used to it.
     They let us play together - first just the roommates, and then in small groups. I didn't know they were checking us out to see how we acted. I love to play! I like to be the first on the playground, running the fastest, grabbing toys, bouncing around. They thought, "Hmmm... is Harriet too aggressive?" But they gave me a chance.
     They examined me - hips, elbows, eyes, feet, skin, fur, ears, heart, lungs, all the rest. You have to be healthy to be a service dog because it's hard work.
     Our classes were in a big room. We had to share our trainer. We'd be tethered to a place by the wall, and we'd practice our Downs and Quiets while somebody else had a turn. We'd also go on field trips to see how much we'd remember outside the classroom. Did I remember? Well, sometimes!
     Here's a link you can click on to see more of what our college days are like.


http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/2876986/600066866/name/NWR 


You won't find me in the pictures.  CCI has five training centers. This one is in California, but farther up the road.
     My PRs received a report card about me every month. They'd read things like:  "Harriet is doing very well with her commands. But she is very excitable with people - she jumps and has trouble settling down. And when she plays with other dogs, she barks and plays roughly. She's immature. We'll have to see if she can grow up enough to be a service dog."
     All I can say is that I didn't know they knew my mind so well. Those are smart people at Oceanside.
     My PRs kept waiting for the call that I was going to be released. But in January's report card they read:  "If all goes well, Harriet will go into Team Training soon." They almost fainted! They love me dearly, but they didn't think I'd get this far.
     Team Training is like this:  Many people want a CCI dog. Each one must fill out an application. Each must go through interviews. CCI wants to be sure that the person has a need the dog can meet; that the person (or person's family) will take good care of the dog; and that the person likes dogs, because you can't do well with an assistant you don't like. Hey, we're not robots - we're living creatures! It isn't like buying a car!
     If the person gets through those hoops, the name goes on a list. When the name comes up again, and if there is a pup who might be a good match, that person gets a call:  "Can you come here to live for two weeks? We may have a dog for you."
     Team training is when a bunch of us dogs meet a bunch of those people. I met this one and that one, and the CCI folks finally said, "Let's try Harriet with this girl and see what happens."
    So I met Siobhan.

     You may pronounce her name "Sha-vohn." I pronounce it "Woof!" with two tailwags. Siobhan (woof, wag, wag) lives in California with her parents, who were at Team Training, too, because they are part of her team.     
     Dogs in Team Training work hard. You have to be nice and polite to everybody - and "everybody" is a lot of people! Instead of listening to your trainer, you have to learn to listen to new people and do as they ask. We have to get used to someone else's voice and personality if we're going to be good assistants.     
     The people work even harder. They have to learn about taking care of a dog. They have to learn the right ways to do things with their dogs. We are pack animals, so we need leaders we respect. So they have to learn to be leaders. Each one has to learn to sound like a boss (not bossy, though). It sometimes got tiring!
     Siobhan didn't have much trouble, though. She's had a CCI Skilled Companion dog before - a black Lab named Gaynor. In fact, if you get the book Love Heels by Patricia Dibsie, you can read all about Siobhan and Gaynor.

And I am Siobhan's next Skilled Companion!

     On February 17th, I graduated and became a CCI dog. My PR mom couldn't be there, but my dad was. He got to be part of the ceremony and present me to Siobhan and her parents.
     Now I get to wear a blue cape instead of the pup-in-training yellow one. Blue goes well with my yellow fur, I think.

Siobhan and I are in our home now, but we're still learning to be a team. We're getting closer, and I'm happy that she's my boss. When I have my, ahem, blue cape on, and we're out and about, I am absolutely perfect. I know my commands and act like a lady. When we are home and my cape is off, I sometimes take a nap.  But most of all I like to race around the back yard and find things to carry in my mouth. I consider that one of my best responsibilities:  comic relief.
     Three cheers for Siobhan (woof, wag, wag)! Three cheers for CCI (row-WOOO)! Three cheers and a couple of big dog biscuits for Harriet III!

     P.S.  For those of you who have read my other blog updates - my nose never did turn pink. Hee hee.

Harriet, the College Student!

Greetings - but not excitable ones - from Southern California!  I've been a CCI service-dog-in-professional-training for over a week now!

Only two weeks ago I was packing for my people and myself so we could all fly to Oceanside, California.  Unhappily, my paws aren't too good at folding stuff so Mom and Dad were doing the work.  Then the phone rang; it was Auntie Kelly from the CCI office, asking if we could take my buddy Gary along with us.  His ride to Oceanside had fallen through.

So Gary came to my house.  I think I'm not too bad a pup, but Gary gets the awards for the longest legs...

...the longest tongue...

...and the most teeth.  We played and played and played, and I let my PRs finish the packing.

Way too early the next morning we were at the airport, checking - or at least guarding - the bags, and walking around as if we were Security dogs.  We went through Security, too.  I'm an old paw at that, but it was Gary's very first time.

The airplane people were very nice to us.  They let us have a little extra room.  Gary used it.  I did the (preferred) sardine-can routine.

It was a long ride.  Clouds over California look like snow in the fields of Colorado.

 

In Los Angeles, my PRs took us to Customer Service to ask where the next (!) plane was.  They they realized they didn't have time to take us out to Hurry!  We would have missed our next flight while we were going through Security again.  So the Customer Service Lady took us outside.  (There are doors she can use that my people can't.)  Here we are coming back in.  We didn't Hurry but we had a great sniffing time.  Hooray for United Express!

Our second plane was designed for chihuahuas, not Labs and near-Labs!  It was so small inside that I could barely scrunch under the seat...

...and Gary, with his extra-long legs, couldn't do it at all.  So he did this, across two seats.  And they let him.  Hooray for United Express (again!).  

Once we landed in San Diego, Gary and I decorated the back seat of a little rental car with dog hair (just a little) until we arrived at the Training Center in Oceanside.  Gary checked in and stayed to meet his new friends in the kennels.

The next day my folks and I went to a place called Sea World.  Now, I won't say it wasn't an interesting place.  There were some strange things on leashes...

...and birds I certainly never saw in Colorado.





 
But I was getting tired.  I watched five minutes of this:

This lady was the best human in the Pets Rule show.  She has raised a CCI pup!



But pretty soon I was sleeping instead of watching.  I even slept through...

I woke up for this.  It's where people's dogs can Hurry at Sea World.  Great smells!

Wanna see a strange dog?  Take a look...

They bark, but I don't think they'd get through Security at the airport, even with a cape on.

I was... 

...this tired.

The next day we were busy.  We went to the beach.  I had been there for a few minutes the night before, and decided I liked sand...

...but now we walked along the shore.

The water kept sneaking up on me.  Stop that, water! 

I got attention from folks...  but I wasn't the only one!

Then we took a tour of my new school.  Here's where I'll be bathed.  There are steps up as if we were royalty or something. 

And there's my dorm room.  The tags were upside down because we hadn't moved in yet.

That afternoon we went to Legoland.  Legos are those crunchy little brick-shaped toys I'm not supposed to eat.

I even rode in a boat!  Later, at the restaurant at dinnertime, my PRs gave me carrots for a special treat.

At last it was the big day.  We picked up Gary again and had a little fun on the playground down the street.

I may be smaller than he is, but I did better on the equipment.

Then it was time!  We got to wear special capes...

...and we met long-lost relatives.  That's my sister Halo with me!

When the ceremony started, we each got to stand in front of the audience and look smart and gorgeous.  Then we settled down as seventeen (not counting the two who graduated early) dogs graduated and became Service Dogs!  That's what I want to do some day.  Some of them will be facility dogs in hospitals or rehab centers.  The rest of them now work for children or adults - some of the adults have fought for our country - who need their help to be more on their own.

Gary and I tried to take it all in...

...but...  (the picture is fuzzy because that's the way we were feeling)

We went back to the Training Center...

...and my mom sneaked me one more special treat (a little peanut butter!  Isn't that on the menu here?).

Then it was time to go to my room.  I was so eager I didn't give my people a backward glance.  But they didn't mind.  It showed that I was confident.

Now the teachers here are checking me out.  No, really.  They're checking my eyes, my ears, my heart, my hips, and all the rest of me.  They'll find out how I get along with other dogs, both in the kennel and in the classroom.  They'll find out if I'm afraid of anything.  They'll find out if I might be good at this sort of work.  Then we'll start classes.

Uh-oh!  Do I remember how to Sit?  How to Under?  How to Roll with my cape on?  I want to be impressive!

Looking Behind, Looking Ahead

Here I sit in my little cave (my PR mom is careful not to put her feet on me when she sits at her desk)...

...thinking about what will happen soon!

The summer has been very busy so far, and it doesn't look as if it will slow down.  I like being busy, but not when the temperature is 92 degrees.  Oh well.

I went on an airplane with my PR dad to spend a week in Madison, Indiana.  I made an amazing discovery.  When I took my people to Missouri in December, the Missouri grass didn't smell like Colorado grass.  Well, Indiana grass doesn't smell like either one of the others!

We drove around - well, I didn't drive - to see friends and relatives.  We walked down by the river.  It's BIG!  Later there were boat races, with thousands of people to watch the boats.  It was noisy and crowded, and I liked it.  Lots of people petted me and said wonderful (and true) things.

Unhappily, there are no pictures, so please imagine the Glorious Harriet also going to the Senior Center, playing with Dad's aunt's doggies, visiting his cousins, going to a band concert, and watching some fireworks.  I can't say that I recommend the fireworks.  Fireworks can scare dogs big time, because of the big lights and the big noises!  But my dad is smarter than to take me that close.  He cares about me!  We sat in a yard far away.  The people thought they were great.  I thought they were ho-hum.

We came back on the plane...and Grandma (my dad's mama) came back with us.  She likes me!

Not only have I been entertaining her...


...but I've helped entertain Ian, who's just a pup- er, baby...

...and Jenna, Katie, and Megan.  I think you've met them before in this blog.

They went with me to puppy class one night.  They were great helpers.

I didn't really want to do a cradle.



And I'd never had any manicurist but my mom!  Weird!  But Mom says I need to get used to other people doing things for me.  That's Mr. Calvano working on my toes.

I've been a great help to my dad.  He's been working in the back yard with paving stones...


...and I help.  He just can't do it without me.

















Then I took everybody to Olivia's birthday party. 











She's my cousin, the sixth CCI puppy my people raised (I'm number nine).

The doggy cake is always wonderful!

And then I spent another few days in the country!  This is Auntie Carol and Gianna.  The picture looks as if I'm getting a massage.  Maybe I am.


She knows a lot of rabbits.  She wanted me to get tired of them and not want to play with them.  I can't say I got tired of them, but it was fun trying.


My family picked me up from Auntie Carol's house, and we went...

...straight to the El Paso County Fair. 

That's a great place to learn new things!  (I even went to a Bingo game!  It's good for practicing downs and unders.  I didn't win anything.) 


Tired, tired, tired....

In a week I'll take my PRs on a plane to California.  We'll visit Legoland and the beach and some other good places.  And then I'll begin my training with the professionals - puppy college!  Will I make the grade?  I'd like to.  Will I like living with forty other dogs?  Hope so!  I hear there's a rabbit who lives there.  Can I ignore him?  Hmmm.