July 5, 2007

My stars and whiskers, the cheering and dancing going on at my house is astonishing, given that it's just because we received a silly e-mail. OK, it's an e-mail with AN ATTACHMENT. Whoopee.

For those of you who may not remember, Hudson was the CCI puppy before me. He left for CCI College in Oceanside, Cailf., in May. Some of the dogs who went to college with Hudson have decided that Advanced Training is not their cup of kibble and have returned home to be Keeper Dogs (pets). Marianne says they are now CCI Change of Career dogs, but that's another DogBlog.

At any rate, Hudson is still in Advanced Training, which is very exciting. We received one short letter from him in June that said he is rooming with Evert and his trainer is Jules. Oh, and he is having fun and enjoying playtime.

Apparently that's not enough information for Marianne, who frets.

"What's the problem? You know he's happy, you know he's having fun, and you know that Jules loves him," I said.

"I know," Marianne admitted, "but I want to know how his classes are going. Is he studying hard, or is he staying up too late? Is he behaving, or is he goofing with the guys, ordering rawhides, drinking too much water, and leading collar raids on the girls' dorm?"

I think I'm too young to understand that last part.

Anyhow, the first report card arrived.

Jules said, "For the first few weeks of AT, we focused on temperament and medical evaluations. The dogs were walked through a standardized temperament test on campus, as well as two off-campus evaluations at Petco. Both tests allowed us to evaluate the dogs' responses to environmental stimuli such as prey, other dogs, people, toys, sounds and novel items."

She continues, "We have also been evaluating the dogs during grooming procedures, and acclimating them to the bathtub and dryer. Heart and eye exams have been completed, as well as hip and elbow X-rays. A lot of time outside of training has been spent on developing appropriate kennel and play-yard manners. In skill training, a significant amount of time was spent working on the "Let’s Go!" command to sharpen positioning and focus on the handler."

Whew! The good news is that Hudson passed all of those tests! That's HUGE.

Jules praised him, saying, "Hudson plays well with other dogs during community run and seeks me out in the play yard. He is adjusting well to the kennels and has a good energy level for the program."

Sounds like he's kind of a goody four-shoes to me, but Marianne was happy about it.

In fact, Marianne was delighted to hear that Hudson's only real issue is showing some fear toward "novel stimuli" (she says that's trainer-speak for "new stuff") with a "slow recovery."

"Jeez," I said, "New stuff scares me, too. What's the big deal?"

So Marianne explained it to me. CCI trainers aren't overly concerned about a dog reacting to something startling (unless it happens all the time), but they want the dog to shake it off and relax so they can get back to work.

It seems that Hudson is a little stressed with college life and not settling down after a loud noise (or some other startling event) as fast as Jules would like. However, Jules said that Hudson is already showing improvement, so Marianne was pleased to hear that.

Best of all, Jules is teaching Hudson some new commands. He's learning to retrieve all kinds of things, and then to hold the item until Jules tells him to give it to her. I'm just working on "fetch," which is the baby version. I can't wait until I go to college and learn the fancy stuff!

Of course, now we have ANOTHER month of fretting until the second report card arrives. I'm not sure I can take the strain.

And get this -- not only do we fret about Hudson, but Marianne e-mails the other puppy raisers who have dogs at college to find out what their reports say, and they fret collectively. Humans baffle me; they really do.

Chow for now!

Parker

Questions or comments for Parker? Send them to call7forhelp@thedenverchannel.com.

Would you like more information about Canine Companions for Independence, or perhaps you'd like to be a puppy raiser? Call 1-800-572-BARK or go to www.cci.org for details.