Hello out there!
I am starting this blog to chronicle my adventures as a first time puppy raiser of a service dog in training. I started out on April 25, 2012 by picking up my first puppy, Zoltan! He is a black labrador, golden retriever cross who was born on February 3, 2012 and he has been an absolute joy so far! I am raising him with the help of my family (Mom, Dad and Brother) as well as our 3 pet dogs (Abby, Molly and Penny).So far, so good!
The organization that I volunteer for is called Canine Companions for Independence (or CCI for short). I would like to say that the views that I express in this blog are solely mine and they may not necessarily reflect the views of CCI.
As a puppy raiser it is my responsibility to provide a safe and nurturing environment for the puppy for the first 18-22 months of his life (or her life). My family and as well as myself are responsible for carefully socializing Zoltan and exposing him to variety of situations along with letting him just be a puppy. We are responsible for training him (he came with a list of 30 commands!) and teaching him to be a polite, well mannered young dog. His tentative turn in time (which is when I will take him back to the organization) is November of 2013. I know that it will be hard to give him back, but knowing that he will go on to help a person who is disabled makes everything I'm doing worth every single second.
CCI provides four types of service dogs 100% free of charge to their recipients. The four types of dogs they provide are:
1) Service Dogs
2) Skilled Companion Dogs
3) Hearing Dogs
4) Facility DogsOh and I guess this blog wouldn't really be complete without a picture of the man himself. Mr. Zoltan!
Raising Zoltan is a joy. He is truly a good puppy! He is very eager to learn his 'commands', but can also be a spazoid of a puppy at times. I'm enjoying him very much :')
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see your adventures with Zoltan, which by the way, is the coolest puppy name. I'll put a link to your site in my blog roll at www.donnasword.com where we share stories of Yaxley's puppy training and my COC dog's second career.
ReplyDeleteDonna that is awesome! I will definitely have to go read Yaxley's stories. :)
DeleteIt's natural for a dog to mark territory, but they can take it too far, especially if they're under stress. With help from you in regulating their world and teaching them appropriate behavior, a dog can be trained to mark territory only where appropriate. As with guarding their food, marking territory is behavior that is ingrained in all dogs.
ReplyDeleteDog Training Los Angeles