Important notice for family & friends friends from CCI

Hi Family and Friends,

I received my CCI training manual today, lots of information, they have informed me to inform you of the following:

It is particularly critical in the first month after team training that I establish control and achieve responsiveness in my dog. In conjunction with getting to know and bonding with my dog.  Setting ground rules and maintaining leadership will be my primary focus. It is very important that you regard the dog as a working animal. It will be detrimental to our (the dogs and myself) working relationship in the long run if the dog receives inviting looks, petting or verbal stimulation from anyone. 

You can best support me by ignoring the dog for the first four to six weeks that we are home.  This does not mean that I can't share with you or show you what the dog does for me. You can support us by not approaching the dog with excitable and emotional greetings. Please remain low key and do not pet I can allow you to shake hands with the dog.  If the dog does get greeted with excitement the dog will run towards you and loose focus on me. (Not good)

Lastly the dog will be of a very special diet so please no treats.

Thank you so much for your continued support and I know it will be hard to follow the above because we are all animal lovers, but it will be VERY IMPORTANT that the dog and I form a relationship after all we will be together 24/7 for the next 8 to 10 years.

Any questions please ask, and please feel free to attend the graduation on Feb 11, 2011 in Santa Rosa (more on this at a later date)

Love Tina

I Got the Call

It is so funny how things all happen for a reason!  This morning my mom and I were talking, saying that Jan 2011 will be one year that I have been on CCI's waiting list for a service dog and that we could not believe how fast it has gone by already.  I couldn't wait to get the annual update forms in the mail and that I probably had just six to eight more months of waiting.

We were outside in the front yard and our neighbor comes walking up to chit chat, and he had out of the blue asked me if i had any updates with the status of getting my service dog, I smiled at him and said no still waiting but it should happen sometime in 2011.

I then came inside, I sat down the phone rang I glanced at the number it was 707 area code (Santa Rosa - CCI main campus) I thought to myself it's a tella marketer but I excitely answered the call. To my surprise it was CCI I figured they just needed annual review updates or something since that time was getting close.  I almost dropped the phone when these words came out of the ladies mouth "We would like to invite you to the Feb 2011 team training for your service dog!"  I course said yes, but at the same time bit my tongue because my mom was not in the house but I knew she wouldn't mind.

I then called her right away to tell her the news she was still outside chatting with the neighbor, I could hardly speak shaking and crying at the same time.  She came inside and just looked at me and said you are joking right with a dazed look on her face. But nope not joking it's really happening.

We leave for Santa Rosa on 1/30/11 where I will be matched and train with my new buddy for two weeks.  I cannot wait to have him or her by my side.  I will be sure to update on our new adventures together. 

The next time I post I will be days away from meeting my new best buddy.  It has been a long time coming I can't wait.  Thanks to all my friends and family for there love and support.