Family Ties

I am excited (pant, pant, wag, wag) to tell you a little more about how I got here. Not by car - I told you about that. I mean... how I became a CCI puppy!

I was born to this position - a little like a hereditary monarch. It's the only thing the Queen of England and I have in common.

There are lots of service dog organizations (organizations, monarch, hereditary - look at all the big words I know!) and they get their dogs in different good ways. The way Canine Companions for Independence does it is by growing them! My Puppy Raisers tell me that my mama and daddy had me on purpose so that I might become a service dog if I can pass all the schooling.

Guess who this handsome dog is?


This is my daddy! I've never met him. He has this job where he travels a lot.

When he was a puppy, way back a couple of years ago....

... he looked a little like me, for some reason. He had Puppy Raisers who loved him and played with him and taught him important things. He learned to eat politely and speak only when told to and sit and stay and all that great stuff.

Then he went off to Advanced Training. That's puppy college. Not all CCI puppies graduate from puppy college! Many of them get other jobs instead - like being put in charge of a nice family. (I'll tell you about the other options another time.)

My daddy went to puppy college, and the teachers gave him lots of tests. They x-rayed his hips and other parts of him to make sure they were strong and healthy. They made very sure his heart and lungs and the rest of his insides were good. They watched him to see how smart he was, how patient (oh, dear) he was, how confident he was, and a whole lot of other things.

The teachers said, "We like what we see! In fact, we wish we had more puppies like him!" That's how my daddy got his job. His job is to be the daddy of a lot of puppies.

He lives with very nice people. They feed him and play with him and take him to his job sites and love him all to pieces. When he retires, he'll keep on living with the very nice people, and they'll keep on feeding him and playing with him and loving him all to pieces. Talk about job security!

Of course, I have a mother, too. But I'll tell you about Mama (yawn) another time.... this keyboard stuff is really tiring to do when you don't have fingers....