A New CCI Puppy

We raise puppies for an organization called Canine Companions for Independence.  CCI is an organization that trains service dogs.  If you want more information about CCI please use the link http://www.cci.org.  As puppy raisers our job is to accept a CCI bred puppy at eight weeks and work with the puppy to socialize and teach the puppy approximately 20 different basic commands.  This is done to get the puppy ready for advanced training.  We turn the puppy in at about 18 months for advanced training and hopefully graduating with a partner that the puppy will be with for the rest of his life.

This will be our third puppy.  Our first puppy did not make it through graduation.  She was a golden retriever and couldn't control her greetings with people which isn't good for working dogs.  Our second puppy was a lab/golden cross.  His curiosity and play drive was too strong for a CCI dog but he was evaluated and accepted as a search and rescue dog.  He has been in training now for about two months and is doing very well.

We are about to accept our third puppy early in January.  We just met him tonight for the first time.  He is an adorable yellow lab/Golden cross.  We will pick him up the first week in January.

So for this puppy, I want to try to put this puppy, his experience with us, and our experience with Pazzo, into a journal so that those who may want to try puppy raising for an organization will know what they can expect.  Usually we get the puppy at 8 weeks but we will be getting Pazzo at about 12 weeks so we will miss the housebreaking and early crate training.  He will also have some of the basic commands such as SIT, DOWN, and perhaps STAY.  It will be up to us to take him the rest of the way through to turn in and hopefully watch Pazzo graduate with someone that he will help and work with for the rest of his life.

I will tell you that that raising the puppy is both easier and harder than it seems.  Staying consistent with commands, not losing your temper, and being open and patient are important qualities.  The puppy will test all of those.  Daily.  But most of the time the puppy will give you days of joy and happiness that offsets any of the down sides that you may have.  If training is consistent,  two sessions a day for about 10 to 15 minutes will result in a puppy that will have everyone wishing they had one as well trained.  Socialization is the next most important part of the puppy's growth.  You will need to introduce the puppy to as many different people and situations as possible to help the pup learn to accept the human world as calmly as possible.  If you can train and socialize, you can puppy raise.

Thank you for reading my blog and as things move along with this puppy, I will keep you posted about our progress with Pazzo.