Nuri's Possible Evaluation

With the many troubles I have been having with Nuri and her training, I have written an email to my PPM to get her advice and to see when I can bring her in for an evaluation. What I really need is someone to see her in action and give me some other advice as to how to get her over her bad behaviors. I'm fresh out of ideas and I hope that someone at CCI can give me a hand. We are currently setting up a time when I can bring Nuri up. I'm not sure whether I have to leave her there for a few days or if it will be a one day thing.

The other option (which I REALLY don't want to do) would be to send her off to another PR for the last few months of training and see if a new environment will do her some good. Here she is a wild child and is taking all my patience and time to try and correct her.

She has been having many issue which include:

• Mouthing - she nips at Wilara (one of my COCs) on her neck as well as her legs and occasionally at Glenda (my sister's COC)
• Mounting - yes she did this to Wilara twice, but hasn't done it again in a few weeks so hopefully that's over with
• Barking - she never stops and does not listen to a correction and doesn't care about the vinegar/water spray or even me spraying Bitter YUCK! in her mouth and giving her a Don't command. The Quiet command seems to make her want to bark even more which is just crazy!
• Possession of Toys - she steals everything that the other dogs have and I think, snapped at Wilara once when she tried to get a toy. I was not looking in that direction so I couldn't tell who did what.

All of these issues are a no-no for CCI pups and I have been working with her for over 3 months now trying to get her to calm down and stop. Nothing seems to be working, so I am using one of the last resorts available to me.

I'll keep everyone posted on what was decided....

Another rainy day

So today was another day where it rained. What is up with this weather?! So Nuri and I decided to joke around in the house and have fun. Here are some photos from today:
I have been having many issues with Nuri over the last few weeks and mostly it has been her barking and craziness that is frustrating me. Here's a small example of that. I took this before the battery in my camera died...



Any advice would be a big help! I put in a word with my PPM over a week ago and have heard nothing back yet. I'm fresh out of ideas!

You can email me as well, I think you can do that on here....

Thanks in advance

Dean Koontz book

This new book by author Dean Koontz is a must read! In the book he writes about his late dog, Trixie, who was a retired Service Dog for Canine Companions for Independence. Trixie, as Dean tells it, saved his life (not in the dangerous way!) and gave him a new purpose in life.

I'm currently still in the process of reading it, but the reviews from fellow CCI people and PRs are overwhelming in praising this book. It's been very long awaited by CCI folks and we thank Dean Koontz and his wife, Gerda, for all that they do for CCI.

All proceeds from this book benefit CCI....so go buy one now!!

W Litter Graduates

Wilara and I have been patiently waiting for all the regions to have their graduations so that we could see who from her litter made the cut. It has been a long wait, but we now know who has graduated!

I want to give big congratulations to:

Weston - Skilled Companion
Walker IV - Skilled Companion
Wessex - Successor Service Dog
Wyatt - Successor Service Dog
Wexler - Service Dog

This litter was a great litter to raise and it was so much fun to keep in contact with most of Wilara's siblings. They all seemed to be the sweetest of dogs and I was really happy to see that so many of them graduated! That's 5 out of 10 which is pretty good to me!

As for the other 4 puppies, and Wilara of course, I hope that you succeed in your Change of Career and do what you were meant to do. Wilara will be heading off to Therapy Dog testing on September 19th and I hope she does well!

Just a quick post

Things have been really busy around here and I promise that I will get up a post about graduation a week ago. Has it really been that long?? Anyways here are a few photos that I took today of the pups!Wilara and Nuri hanging out! Wilara had to blink and Nuri put on her best "pity me" face!

The three girls...I have one of each breed that CCI uses! Awesome! Glenda IV, Wilara, and Nuri.

ARC Kohler School Demo

On Friday, Nuri and I went up to Mountainside, NJ to meet up with fellow PR Jen and pup Callie and Skilled Companion Team Bob and Efram and facilitator Sarah. We had a demo that we were doing for a school with children that have developmental disabilities. It was a lot of fun! Nuri did very well and loved to have the kids play with her and pet her. She especially liked the kids where she could lick their faces. (Obviously the licking thing is still a work in progress!)

First Bob and Efram did a demo where they showed how Efram helps Bob with everyday tasks. He opened and closed a door for him, picked up his keys, went Under his chair, did a Lap and a Visit while also displaying a great knowledge of the Side command! Go Efram! They had one of the kids help out by throwing the keys on the ground for Efram to go and get. I always love to see a team working so well together. It makes my "job" that much easier and more fulfilling.

I would love to post pictures of the demo here on the blog, but do to the kid's releases I can't. I don't know which ones are allowed to have pictures of them posted and which aren't so we will leave it that I won't post any pictures. I will leave you all with this picture though...
Nuri was exhausted after the demo and fell asleep on the way home. But in typical Nuri fashion, she had to do things the hard and difficult way. So she slept this way! Yes, she is actually asleep. She wasn't so thrilled that she heard the camera click when I took the picture. She looked at me all sleepy and annoyed. It was hilarious!

Team Training Lunch

Well on Tuesday I was off to CCI early in the morning to go and serve lunch for the TT class! My mother and I decided to invite others to join us and we had a big turnout! We all had a fun time and it was really great to get to meet the graduates. People were really nice and no one was without someone to talk to. I knew two of the dogs up for graduation and it was fun to see who could possibly be getting them. I did know a girl who was getting her Skilled Companion and it was fun to chat with Mel and see what she thought so far of TT. It was only Tuesday so things still had to pick up in pace and she was really excited for that part to come!

Here are some pictures from the lunch:
We had a wide variety of food this time which was great. The menu was....chicken marinated in italian dressing, salad, baked ziti, couscous salad, corn casserole, cheese quesadillas, chips with salsa and homemade guacamole, tomatoes and mozzarella, fresh fruit salad and a tray of veggies. For dessert we had chocolate chip bars, brownies, carrot cake cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes, and chocolate chip raisin cookies. We also bring wine to the lunches which is always a hit and everyone gets a good laugh about it being there. It was a great feast!!! Everything is homemade which makes it that much better and the teams all really enjoy that! People kept eating and eating and surprisingly there was still some food leftover for us to eat!

As a rule, when we do lunch, we always let the staff and teams eat first and then when they all head back to class we dig into whatever is left. There have been many classes where there has been nothing left to eat and we have had to stop at McDonald's on the way home because we were starving!

Also, we leave behind any leftover food from the lunch. The graduates don't have dinner provided for them so the leftover food is usually reheated and that's their dinner. A lot easier than having to go out to find a restaurant or order in food. One of the women who helped out this time even left them a whole other tray of ziti that they can just pop in the oven and have for dinner another night! I love how people are so willing to help out the teams. Even those little gestures are a big help.

It was a great day and we all had a fun time....until next time! We're already beginning to plan out that menu....