My journey with Nin started in February of 2010, in New York. It was a crazy, cold and snowy winter here in DC and my service dog, Steeler was having some problems with his hips. He was slowing down and in the cold was very reluctant to jump up and push elevator buttons for me, a command that I relied on daily. After numerous appointments with the vet it was decided that surgery would put this 9 year old Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever cross back in working order. He was 9. The typical working life for a service dog of this size is to 8 years, retirement being around the age of 10. I began to wonder if it was worth it. I called Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), the agency that had bread, raised and trained Steeler for me to see what they had to say and the trainers thought it was time for Steeler to go into retirement. I really couldn't argue with the logic although retirement for a service dog is a word a handler never wants to hear.
CCI, as always did a great job of getting me into a class so that I did not have to go without a dog. I had come to rely on my service dogs for my independence. I lived alone and the dog would assist me with opening my front door, closing it behind me, finding that oh so illusive remote control, picking up the numerous things that I dropped and pushing the many elevator buttons between work and home (and back).
CCI, as always did a great job of getting me into a class so that I did not have to go without a dog. I had come to rely on my service dogs for my independence. I lived alone and the dog would assist me with opening my front door, closing it behind me, finding that oh so illusive remote control, picking up the numerous things that I dropped and pushing the many elevator buttons between work and home (and back).
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| Steeler at work |
I would go into February’s class. So, I dropped off Steeler at new home on a Sunday morning and with my eyes full of tears, I drove up to New York for my next adventure...
The process of getting a dog is long. After all the paperwork is filled out and the interviews are done, you wait...and wait...then there is that phone call saying that you have been accepted into, what CCI calls, Team Training. Nobody can prepare you for Team Training and no matter how many times one goes through it, it will knock you on your butt. The best way to describe it is that it is two of the most physically and emotionally draining weeks in which you will question your ability, communication skills (with people, animals and a carpet roll alike), humanity, and endurance. You will experience the highest of highs by just having a dog "sit" on command and the lowest of lows when that same dog refuses to poop for you day after day. You will even begin to question, at some point, for a split second, if you even like dogs. There is nothing else like it, and the one thing that gets you through Team Training is the six to eight other people that are all in the same boat with you, your class. You find that each person has the same questions and the same fears. Together somehow, you all make it through.
At the end of the two weeks you go to a graduation ceremony, it may seem corny, but it is necessary. This is where the puppy raiser, for the dog that you have been paired with, hands you a leash with that bundle of fur attached at the other end and you breath for a second before panic strikes and you hope you can control that bundle of fur from jumping off the stage into the audience dragging you screaming behind.
The process of getting a dog is long. After all the paperwork is filled out and the interviews are done, you wait...and wait...then there is that phone call saying that you have been accepted into, what CCI calls, Team Training. Nobody can prepare you for Team Training and no matter how many times one goes through it, it will knock you on your butt. The best way to describe it is that it is two of the most physically and emotionally draining weeks in which you will question your ability, communication skills (with people, animals and a carpet roll alike), humanity, and endurance. You will experience the highest of highs by just having a dog "sit" on command and the lowest of lows when that same dog refuses to poop for you day after day. You will even begin to question, at some point, for a split second, if you even like dogs. There is nothing else like it, and the one thing that gets you through Team Training is the six to eight other people that are all in the same boat with you, your class. You find that each person has the same questions and the same fears. Together somehow, you all make it through.
At the end of the two weeks you go to a graduation ceremony, it may seem corny, but it is necessary. This is where the puppy raiser, for the dog that you have been paired with, hands you a leash with that bundle of fur attached at the other end and you breath for a second before panic strikes and you hope you can control that bundle of fur from jumping off the stage into the audience dragging you screaming behind.
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