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!