The long journey home!

It was a long journey home!

First, I had to pack up my van. I had my large suitcase with 2 weeks worth of clothes and personal care items plus the huge Training notebook I started with. But now I also had a 72 lb dog, tons of class materials (tons!), a 20 pound bag of dog food and big starter-kit full of things from CCI (grooming kit, food dishes, etc.), items I bought at Petco (large dog bed, large pooper scooper and toys) and new clothes I picked up at Kohls to fill in short-falls. Oh, and also my travel scooter and crutch. Whew!

The Ferry Ride

It was just a 20 minute drive to the ferry dock. Lucah stayed right on the back seat, just as he had done on our class outings. At the dock, we were directed into the "handicapped" car lane so we'd get a parking spot near the ferry's elevator.

Once parked, I contemplated staying in the van for the 1 1/2 hour ride. I had a dog chew for Lucah and things I could read. But I decided to venture out - after all, that was the point of everything, wasn't it?

Lucah watched patiently as I unloaded my travel scooter. When I was ready and gave the signals, he jumped off the back seat, out of the car and positioned next to me. As we got going, he paced himself right by my side and we made our way up a short ramp and into the cabin.

The first challenge was the elevator. The path was narrow with a few sharp turns, requiring a lot of repositioning of the scooter and Lucah. We took up the entire small elevator space, rode up, got out and made our way to a corner spot at a railing under an overhang. Yea!

The weather was fabulous and Lucah was great. He lay quietly at my feet and looked up and wagged when people came by. I had him Sit and Shake with some delighted kids. One woman told me all about her friend who puppy trains dogs for the blind - she took our picture.

After a while, we went inside the main cabin to get our ticket for getting off the ferry. No issue - Lucah stayed right at my side and sat while we were at the counter. Then came the next challenge: the bathroom. There was one step to get into the bathroom so I parked my travel scooter and got off (no access for people in wheelchairs...). As I expected, the room was small and the stalls minuscule. Lucah went in with me but refused to squish into a stall. I didn't want to have him separated from me so we left. I hoped there would be a gas station or fast food eaterie near the dock.

We made our way back to my van with people politely getting out of our way, holding doors and otherwise trying to help. The final challenge came when the ferry blasted its horn, just as we got to the van. We jumped and looked at one another. I grasped the leash a tad tighter in case Lucah decided to bolt and opened the van side door. He was anxious to jump in but waited for the command. Good boy! Man, did he scramble quickly when I gave the word! Safe and sound!

The Car Ride and Arrival

What should have been a three hour drive home turned into nearly six hours, due to traffic back-up after back-up. We stopped twice at rest stops. At the second one, I rode my travel scooter around for ten minutes to give Lucah a short walk. It's tough to sit in one place for so long!

We finally made it home with no further ado. Ed heard the garage door open and hurried out to greet us and meet Lucah. Before I could say anything, Ed swung the van side door open, looked at Lucah and excitedly exclaimed, "Hey Lucah!"

Guess what happened next: Lucah excitedly bounded off the seat and scrambled towards him without waiting for any commands from me! As the Trainers told us over and over: our dogs may be expertly trained but a dog's still a dog's still a dog and sometimes, they are just going to do what they want. Lucah got away with that one.

Guess I need to train Ed on how to handle Lucah...

I've been home for almost a week now so will post again on how our first week has gone. Check back!

Gradution Day - plus surprise TV interview!

Graduation Day was intense! Click on the thumbnails below to see larger pictures!

The morning started with a final class on responsibilities to our dog and CCI, public access and travel. CCI staff in the photo below: Jen in the back, front row, from left: Ellen, Laura Ann, Stacey, Lisa, Lauren, Jessica and Flora.

Rickie Robinson, Lucah's Puppy Raiser, loved the framed photo I gave her and will proudly display it in her home. Rickie gave me a wonderful Puppy Scrapbook filled with photos and mementos.

A big surprise was that Rickie, her husband and I were selected to be interviewed on News 12 Networks television, the largest regional news network serving NY, NJ and CT with local news 24-hours a day.

After the TV interview, Rickie, her husband Wil and daughter Raine, Lucah and I joined the others and their dogs at the delicious Graduation Lunch buffet. Everyone, including the dogs, were perfectly behaved!

Graduation was held in a Marriott ballroom. It was filled with Puppy Raisers of our dogs, dogs entering the next Advanced Training Class and dogs who are being released for adoption as well as us graduates with family and friends, CCI staff, donors and volunteers. Oh, and lots and lots of dogs! Lisa, Lucah's Trainer, sat with me for the audience picture below.

Bernice and Floyd, friends of mine on Long Island and dog lovers, came to cheer me on. They were touched by the Puppy Raising Program and wished they were able to participate.

We saw two fabulous Slide Shows - one of pictures of our dogs' growing up months and the other of us during Training. Cortney's reading of our personal comments about what the program means to us was spellbinding. Even more touching was the proud moment when Puppy Raisers turned the leashes over to the graduates on stage, one by one.

Tomorrow, I pack everything back up in the van plus tons of new things including a large dog. Lucah and I will take the ferry from Long Island over to CT and then make the long drive back home.

Check back for more posts about the journey home and a new life with Lucah!

Photos

And his name is...

Lucah!

We passed!

With flying colors!

Emotions were high last night with preparing for the CCI Final Exam and Public Access Certification test.

After nine full days of class lectures, practical exercises and outings, I was exhausted. I went to bed at 10:00 p.m. but was wide awake at 3:30 a.m. After tossing and turning, I finally got up at 5:30 to get the coffee brewing. I took my tall cup, lecture notes, program notebook and home-made flash cards into my dorm room bathroom for a final review as I didn't want to wake Lucah! Fortunately, our bathrooms have walk-in showers with a large benches so I could sit there instead of on the toilet!

At 6:30, I ventured out to wake Lucah. He was awake, looked up and wagged. Guess I don't have to worry about him demanding to be let out before I'm ready! I got him out of the crate, put his collar and leash on and took him out to Hurry ("go"). He went, had breakfast, had some play time and then rested on a mat while I went back to studying.

By 9:00, everyone was in the Training Room for the Final. The first person was done in just over an hour. I took one and a half. Almost everyone was done within two hours although one person took the allotted three.

At noon, we had lunch, again provided by volunteers. Most of them are Puppy Raisers (but not of our dogs) and love preparing the meals, chatting and seeing our dogs.

Then it was time for the Public Access Certification test. It began with the Trainers evaluating us loading our dogs into our cars. We drove to the Mall and were critiqued as we unloaded them. In the Mall, we performed commands and handled our dogs in the face of distractions.

I made a big mistake on the elevator exercise, which I realized as soon as I finished it! Although I had properly blocked the door as I commanded Lucah into the elevator ahead of me and had him sit while I entered the elevator, I screwed up the exit. I got out of the elevator ahead of Lucah - bad, bad bad. There are horror stories about people being in (or out) of the elevator as the door closes with their dogs on the other side. I knew better but I was nervous!

However, Lucah and I performed well with other commands and handling distractions so I kept telling myself we'd be ok. After everything was done, all of us and our dogs huddled together and waited. The Trainers went over clip charts and discussed performances. Everyone despaired over a thing or two that didn't go perfectly.

The good news: we all passed! There was a lot of hand shaking, hugging and some tears.

When we got back to the facility, we had another 1-1 with the Trainers to go over final concerns and questions and got the results of the exam. I got a 96 1/2%. We also heard about the plans for tomorrow's Graduation day.

Graduation Day Preview

We'll have a final class about having a CCI Service Dog. Although the dogs are released to us, they are still CCI property and we need to follow rules and regs as well as get periodic Public Access re-certification. Right now, I'm good for six months.

Also in the morning, our dogs' Puppy Raisers arrive. They had the dogs for 1 1/2 years, teaching them manners and basic commands and socializing them in community settings. At that point, the dogs underwent rigorous evaluation. Some got selected for Advanced Training while others become available for adoption. After six to nine months of Training, there's another evaluation and selections are made for the Service Dog program. Only 40% of the dogs bred (in CA) for the program make it all the way. Those who don't are in high demand - there's a 5-year waiting list!

The Puppy Raisers and their dogs will not have seen one another for 6-9 months so there will be a lot of excitement. They'll have private time before we meet and have lunch together. All of us went out yesterday to buy picture frames to hold photographs taken of us with our dogs (ours above) to give to our dog's Puppy Raiser.

After lunch, the Puppy Raisers will take the dogs with them while we head to the Marriott for Graduation. The ceremony will include an Introduction about CCI, a Welcoming of the next batch of puppies for Advanced Training, Honors to the Puppy Raisers and a Slide Show of photos taken of the puppies and throughout the Training. More than 2,000 shots were taken of us so I'm glad I'm not the one picking the photos out! We'll get CDs with all our photos.

Then Courtney (one of us ten Graduates) will give a 5-minute presentation. We gave her a personal paragraph or two we wrote to read to the audience so it will be powerful. We'll come up, one by one, to the stage and our Puppy Raisers will cross the stage with our dog and hand their leashes to us.

We'll have the usual post-Graduation congrats, photos, gifts, flowers and festivities. Our kitchen fridge is full of flowers that family members brought for the Graduates. It's been fun to see spouses and children arrive and meet them. Many came last weekend and some were here for some of the training days as well.

Hope I can sleep tonight!

Last class day - off to study!

Today was our last class day with one final Going Home lecture yet to go before Graduation Ceremonies Friday afternoon. Typically, there's some 300 people at Graduation with family members and friends showing up in full force as well as past assistance dog recipients, CCI staff, donors, volunteers, and anyone otherwise interested. It's a media event!

Today, we heard a comprehensive lecture from the vet, got all the health information about our dogs, went over what to do when we return home and set up routines, took ID photos that will go on our Certificates for Public Access cards and had group photos taken as well as individual photos for the Graduation slide show. Our outing was to Pet Smart and we stocked up on essentials and toys. I bought a filled bone for the long trip home via ferry and car.

It's a big day tomorrow with the Final Exam in the morning and the Public Access test in the afternoon at the Mall. "Fido" wished me well (in the photo above), after we did some training on Get the Leash (for when he drops it). After graduation, I can let you all know what Fido's real name is.

I'm off to a study group. Wish me good luck!!!

Cleaning up

After another full day of lectures, practices and an outing to the grocery store, we had a fun exercise!

The Mall! And the Food Court!

We all went to the Mall! Our trainers tried their usual tactics to distract our dogs but we and they were amazing! I challenge the London Guards marching at Westminster!

The trainers instructed us to command our dogs to squeeze under low benches and tables and stay there. We practiced getting on and off the elevator, followed the trainers past kiosks with colorful, noisy, jumping toys and dropped personal items on the floor for them to pick up. Fido is terrific at retrieving my keys and wallet.

While all that was going on, we also had to handle the usual activities in a busy mall - noises, bright lights, kids running by, people cutting us off, etc. One woman stopped by me and was gushing about the dogs but keeping a bit back. I offered to let her Shake with my dog and she was thrilled.

The big challenge was lunch. We went to the Food Court, bought our food, settled down at tables and had our dogs go Under and lay Down. But it was no time to eat and shoot the breeze. Our trainers came by and sprinkled food right at our dogs' feet. Four pieces were thrown down around Fido's face with one piece falling right under his nose. Did he go after any? No! Good dog!

After lunch, it was time to head back but before doing that, we all had to "go". Using the mall bathroom (for us) was no big deal, as we've now had the dogs with us 24-7 for a few days. We took our dogs outside to the small mulched areas at the base of trees. The areas are about 4' by 4'. We commanded Release and Hurry and they all went.

By now, I've got the loading the dog into the car down pat for this vehicle so that was a snap and off we went. As I'm using the travel scooter for the Training, he's used to me putting that in the van after he's settled. Back home, I only use it when I'm going somewhere with extended walking so we can skip that step. When I get to FL, we'll have to adjust to a different car but I'm confident that will go just fine.

You are invited to Graduation

You are invited to the Graduation

Friday, August 14th
2:00 - 3:30 PM
Islandia Marriott
3635 Expressway Drive
North Islandia, NY 11749

Graduation is free and open to the public.

Some of my friends who live here are coming and I'm sure they'll take photos of me. Feel free to come, too!

It will be cool to see the families of all the other students. Some of them were here over the weekend. They were shocked at how amazing the dogs are. Their other family members and friends who come on Graduation will be even more shocked!

Out and About!

We're on a roll! As the lectures and commands get completed, more and more time is been spent on practical exercises. While all class topics are important, Daily Life on Saturday (yes, we had class on Saturday) was critical in giving us an understanding of life with an Assistance Dog. Yes, they are dogs, but they are not "pets".

Pets don't go to restaurants, the movies or the library but Assistance Dog International certified dogs go every where we go, no questions asked and at no added cost. This Thursday, we take the ADI certification test at a Mall. If we don't pass, we can still take our dogs home (assuming we pass the 2 or so hour CCI Final Exam that morning) but we are not certified to take our dogs into public settings.

Thus, we spent a lot of time these past few days learning the commands for loading and unloading our dogs (car, wait, jump; off, wait, off), practicing that and going on field trips. You should have seen us at Target and Loews!

We were 10 students plus an additional eight family members here with us for training, a handful of trainers plus all our assorted mobility equipment. Of course, we took all the handicapped parking spots! Except me: I couldn't get one so I had to take a regular spot. It was quite a challenge to do the unloading and loading back up, as I brought my travel scooter to practice with so I had that as well as my dog, crutch and pocket book (decided to leave the crutch in the van).

In the stores, we got into a processional line, just like in grammar school, and followed our trainers as we traveled down various aisles. The goal was to make our dogs invisible. Think of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - all they do is look straight ahead while at the same time, know everything that's going on around them.

Just as kids act silly to make such guards lose their composure, our trainers did their best to make our dogs act out. They dropped products with a clunk, stepped right over them and made loud noises. That's Mark in the photo with his dog as Lisa does her best to cause a distraction. Mark's right on top of the situation, just as he is on his life. Despite a paralyzing truck accident, he rides an ATV and flying glider and goes snow mobiling and kayaking.

They also play acted like store customers enamored of our dogs - running up to them, cooing and asking if they could pet them. We learned to command our dogs to remain seated, explain that our dogs are working and offer to allow them to Shake. We keep CCI brochures in the pockets of our dog's Assistance Dog vests that we can hand out.

Whew! Upcoming Field Trips this week are to a Mall, grocery store and Pet Smart. At Pet Smart, we'll finally be allowed to do real shopping.

Life Around Dog Campus

Ah yes, life goes on for us and our dogs outside of class. A big, fenced in area gives us the opportunity to let our dogs run. It was fun to see them go a bit nuts. I need to run off some energy myself! Unfortunately, it's been too hectic to go to the YMCA as often as I had planned. I got there one night last week to swim and hope to get there tonight again as I have a hair appointment on Wednesday.

As the earliest riser, I'm first in the community kitchen to make the coffee. That's followed by taking Fido out. Oops, this morning I forgot my key and was standing outside in my morning sweats, flip flops and crazy hair hoping someone would get up soon and let us in. We all came here as strangers just a week ago and now we're hanging out as family - sharing a cup of coffee and funny stories, going out for dinner, finding someone's lost sock in the dryer and getting annoyed at something or other.

Without cell phone service in the facility, we have to go outside for phone calls. Here's John catching up on emails with his fiance Cindy and their dog. Like Mark, John (who was in a motorcycle accident at age 24) is non-stop. He's a special ed teacher, has been in the Boston Marathon - twice - and is an avid skier. See him on this Youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4O4xY02k5I

Speaking of cell phones, I need to get outside to check for VMs and then get us to class!

In the groove and working the program

Gee, Dog Camp is a lot of work! The past three days have been non-stop between lectures, learning the commands, practicing the commands both in the training rooms and outside, reading informational handouts and completing the take-home quizzes every night.

Whew, as a consequence, here are two commands that were needed multiple times throughout the day by us as well as our dogs: Release (relax and take a breather) and Hurry (it's time to potty). Above at the left, we are doing a joint Release!

Imagine - there's a command to tell the dog to relax! That's because otherwise he is on command, which is work, and that creates a certain amount of stress. And yes, Hurry is a command to "go to the bathroom". Actually, the toilet process is to command him to the spot where you want him to relieve himself, give the command Release so he relaxes a bit and then command Hurry. Guess what - he goes pretty quickly! That means no unending dog walks, praying that perhaps around this corner he'll decide to go and you can get back home. Sounds like good time management skills to me!

We've learned 30 commands so far and have another dozen or so to learn. Here I am as we practice Carry. We had our dogs pick up items from the floor (Get) and then we walked around the room while they held them in their mouths. When we were good and ready, we touched the items while they were still in our dogs' mouths, commanded Give, and our dogs let them go. "Fido" and I got A's on this exercise although some people needed to correct their dogs and try again and sometimes, again and again.

Note than I'm wearing all white! Much of my wardrobe is black but now, a lot of the black will have to go. Tonight after dinner, I ran to the store to get a lint/hair remover roller so the two pairs of black pants I brought won't stay covered with white speckles. The other night I ran to Kohl's to buy these white shorts.

My brain is a little overloaded with all the commands plus all the lectures on Resistance, Canine Communication, Grooming, Canine Learning and Safety & Public Etiquette. Our dogs accompany us to class - see Courtney with her dog (and her son Findlay's dog). The Grooming lecture led to a grooming exercise. Except for nail clipping, they loved it. Especially the tooth brushing - they licked every final bit of toothpaste off the brush.

Speaking of all the classes and exercises, the trainers are magnificent! There's a whole crew and it's clear they love their jobs. They attend a three year apprentice program to become certified as dog trainers. Three years! Of course they fall in love with the dogs they are training but then, those dogs graduate to their owners and a whole new class of dogs to be trained comes on board. I guess it's like being a teacher. Lisa was the trainer for my dog. I've done pretty well learning the commands with good responses but the starting point is great training. Go Lisa! And then, as we've learned, it's up to the handler to be a proper Pack Leader. I'm learning!

I have more to share but it's late and I need to get my clothes out of the dryer. There's a huge laundry room with plenty of washers and dryers, a sink, counter and drying area and plenty of detergent. I didn't need to bring my baggie filled with Tide after all!

I'm going to tip-toe out out to get my clothes because "Fido" is sleeping now. Yes, I have an overnight guest! See him trying out the crate when we got back from training today. It's our first night with our dogs and we'll keep them from here on out.

Notice that he doesn't take up all the space in the huge crate. When I got here, I was taken aback by the size of the crate. One of the trainers explained that the crates were donated and although they are big for our dogs, they were free. Like with any non-profit, donations and volunteers are the lifeline. Thanks to those who donated great crates!

Our last activity today was a group outing to Target. I'll share about that next time! You should have seen us!

Matched!

I got my match but I was informed I can't release the name until after the training so for my blog, we'll use "Fido". Fido is gorgeous and has a gentle, loving temperament. We just finished learning the commands Under and OK. Under is to go under a desk/table/space and take up a small space. I'll need that when I travel on the airplane. OK is to allow the dog to eat food.

I'm on a 15 minute break and have to get back to class. Now it's lecture time about resistance.

To the dogs!

Week One, Day 1 and Day 2
Settling in, learning the lay of the land and getting started

Dog Camp this week is a combination of classroom lectures and practical exercises with take home quizzes. CCI volunteers arrive in the mid-morning as busy bees in the communal kitchen preparing delightful lunch salads, entrees and desserts. The volunteers are CCI "puppy raisers" who raise and socialize their assignments for eighteen months. Then the dogs are turned over to CCI kennels for training, which takes 6 - 9 months. About 60% of the dogs make it all the way through to becoming a certified Service Dog.

Day 1 classes were Orientation to Team Training, Orientation to the Canine, Correction, Command Introduction, and Kids & Dogs.

There was a lot of information but the bottom line: Dogs are emotional, reactive pack animals. We must be the Pack Leader, handle our emotions, be at-the-ready to praise, correct and react to their reactions to distractions. Yikes, this will be real skill building work.

After the lectures, Day 1 practices began with working with a fake dog - actually, a rolled up rug dubbed Carpet Dog. A trainer held and moved Carpet Dog as the student worked with it. Commands were Sit, Down, Let's Go and Don't. Don't is the correction word used when the dog doesn't do as commanded. It's accompanied by a swift pull of the leash that snaps the collar. While Carpet Dog responded correctly most of the time, there were times he ignored commands and we had to correct him.

Then it was time to practice with real dogs, the dogs to be assigned to us. That was quite a different experience. Most of us weren't as assertive snapping the leash with the word Don't because we didn't want to hurt the dogs. And, we were stupefied on the occasions when the dogs continued to ignore commands and corrections. We just looked at the trainer wondering "now what do we do?" Keep practicing, of course, and build up the confidence.

Day 2 was spent doing practical exercises including a tour inside the facility and outside around the building. We practiced Day 1 commands and learned more commands, practicing first with Carpet Dog. These were heel (sit at the left side), side (sit at the right side) and release (telling the dog he has some time off to just be a dog). Most of us still had to work on getting the dogs to respond timely and appropriately. We have a long way to go!

At the end of Day 2 after having handled about 6 different dogs over the two days, we wrote down the names of the three dogs we were most interested in. The trainers have their opinions based on our written applications and phone and in-person interviews as well as observing us. We'll get a pre-match tomorrow and begin working with "our" dogs. The trainers said sometimes adjustments need to made but generally, the pre-matches work out.

Everyone's nervous as we've all handled some dogs that felt "good" and some that didn't feel very "right". The trainers cautioned us not to pre-judge matches because we've had limited time with the dogs and circumstances are abnormal so nobody is at their best - dogs or humans.

Life outside of training

Dinner each day is on our own as well as breakfast, so most people went out to the nearest grocery store the first evening to stock up. The community kitchen is huge with lots of refrigerator and freezer space and plenty of kitchen appliances and tools.

The first two nights I enjoyed home cooked dinners with a nice group including (in the photo from the left) Melanie, her mom and Patrick. Melanie is an adorable, 11 year old dynamo in her wheelchair who is one of the nation's youngest sit skiers as well as rides horses! At the age of just 18 months, a virus attacked her spinal cord and left her paraplegic. Patrick, another baby-boomer like myself, has trouble walking due to surgery on a spinal cord tumor that took away the tumor but damaged nerves involved in walking.

Now it's time to do some laundry and complete today's take-home quiz! Wish me well on my Match tomorrow.

I'm finally here!

It was a delightful, arduous, exciting and overwhelming day but I am here. The goal was to get to the CCI campus by 5:00 p.m., when the front gates close. It was 4:46 when I drove through, whew.

The delightful part was the lovely Lunch Connection in Fairfield, CT before I boarded the Ferry. Elizabeth and her husband and adorable son, Cheryl and Mark and his wife met with me. The arduous part was the three hour drive to get there, mostly in the rain. The exciting part was taking my van on the Ferry to Long Island (took 1 1/2 hours).

Finally getting here and having it all begin to sink it is a bit overwhelming, on many counts.

The "Miller Family Campus" of Canine Companions for Independence, completed and opened just last summer, is quite a campus indeed. I feel like I'm back at the U and need to find the Union.

My dorm room (one of 11) is clean, sparse, and huge. It has all the basics plus one notable difference: there's a huge, and I mean HUGE, crate in the corner. OMG, I thought. This dog is going to be the Lock Monster. Honestly, I had a sudden, serious doubt about this.

I saw most of the other participants at the Orientation Dinner, held in a large, communal kitchen that opened up into a huge, open living room with a big TV, sofas, chairs and game tables. We didn't have an opportunity to chat, though. A trainer just had us each say our names and where we were from. Then she spoke about program and campus rules and responsibilities and gave us a tour of the meeting and training exercise rooms. She emphasized how intensive and tiring the days were and suggested we be sure to rest and eat well. Ok, another doubt welled up...

She also informed us that we don't have cell phone service here. It's a bad location plus the building is brick. Maybe not having cell phone service was part of the plan so that people would pay attention better? Let's add another descriptive word for this day: challenging!

There were four baby-boomers about my age - a man using a manual wheelchair, another man using a walker and a woman using an electric wheelchair plus myself with my forearm crutch and travel scooter. There were two elementary school age boys with significant challenges in power wheelchairs who with their moms. The program is also for disabled kids, offering assistance to the team as well as companionship and socialization for the kids. Finally, there were two young, bright women, each in manual wheelchairs, one by herself and one with her mom. Quite a diversity of situations! I wondered what each of their stories were.

So it all really begins tomorrow, at 9:00 a.m. Turns out they have coffee available in the kitchen. Whew. I had brought some coffee and paper filters just in case. What would I do without java and guess what: it's DD coffee. They also provide towels, which I had brought just in case, and bar soap so hadn't needed to bring that, either. But there were no cups at my bathroom sink! My hand will need to be my cup after brushing my teeth tonight.

My first evening tomorrow after my first long day will entail grocery shopping. And not just for bathroom cups. People are on their own for dinner as well as breakfast so I'll need to stock up on easy to make dinners. Think I'll take my cell phone with me so I can call someone from the outside world.

Exchanging one dog for another...

I'm just about ready to head out to Long Island to go to Dog Training. Most everything is ready to load up into the van - just need a final think-through and look-through. I almost forgot that I probably need my own towels! The Residence Hall is not a hotel. Maybe I need to also bring my own coffee. Hope they have a laundromat.

While waiting for my final clothes to finish drying and the last dishes to finish washing, I printed out Mapquest directions to Tucker's Cafe in Fairfield CT for my lunch with a few folks before boarding the Ferry, from the Cafe to the Ferry, from the Ferry to the Canine Companion Campus and from there to 1) a Hair Salon where I have a hair appt next week and 2) the YMCA where I pledge to keep up with PT and exercise. Oh yes, I do have GPS in the car but people who know me understand why I still need to do this... sigh. Love those lists, reinforcements and back-up plans.

One last minute task was taking the photo above. I forgot to share that I indeed already have a dog - well, sorta. I bought this "breathing dog" at a kiosk in the mall a few years ago. He's so cute! And with his battery, his belly moves up and down and you can hear breathing. I had a fun time when people came over and saw my new dog napping on the couch. Hope he doesn't get jealous...

Ok, time's crunching, time for that final check before loading up.

About to enter a Dog's World

Countdown to heading from MA to Long Island for an on-site, two-week Assistance Dog Training Class … if all goes well, I’ll return home with “Fido” …

As you see, I can put my (lightweight) travel scooter in the trunk but I do have some trouble walking. I have a rare neurological condition that affects the muscles in my legs. I use a forearm crutch to get around but need a scooter for distances.

It took nearly two years to get called. The process required a written application, phone interview and doctor referral. After all that was approved, I traveled to NY for an in-person interview. Then, I took my spot on the waiting list.

The Labrador Retrievers are fully trained – it’s the humans who needs training. Training is intense with lectures, group practice and individual instruction as well as field trips. There’s no guarantee – there are tests to take and proficiency to prove. It was a real eye-opener when the thick training notebook arrived several weeks ago. Fortunately, it came with two CDs, which I’ll listen to as I drive to NY. (Ssh, don't tell, but my friend Leslie with MS sent me her notes from her Training Class last February - she loves her dog Wheeler!)

Honestly, I had my doubts. It’s a major commitment and undertaking with 24-7 responsibility. I’m at our FL home about ½ the year and 75% of that is alone, as Ed’s still working. So the bottom line and pooper scooper will be all mine a lot of the time. However, being alone in FL is one of the reasons I applied and so I’m embracing the opportunity.

The trip begins with a 3 hour drive to Fairfield CT. There, I’ll enjoy lunch with a few people involved in an online support group for our health condition. Then, I’ll take the 1 ¼ hour ferry to Port Jefferson, Long Island.

The Canine Companions for Independence facility is in Medford. The 11 acre campus features 35 kennels, exercise yards, a wellness clinic and grooming facility, kennels and play yards. The Residence Hall has 11 dorm rooms and a community kitchen, dining room and lounge. There are 5 training and meeting rooms. That will be my "home" and "school" for two weeks.

Tonight I finish packing and getting ready for my drive tomorrow. Let's see: clothes, personal care items, Training Workbook and CCI materials, camera, pocketbook, magazines and books, gym clothes & bathing suit for exercise/PT at the YMCA, crutches, scooter and battery charger. Oh yes, I still need to make sure my daughter Julia comes by everyday to feed my two Fighter Fish while I'm gone. Hope they'll get along with Fido. And of course I need my laptop! The campus has WIFI, whew.

Stay tuned!

For information about the Canine Companions for Independence program, visit www.cci.org