Second Day of Class

Today started very foggy, which is typical for Santa Rosa at this time of year. Even though it's autumn, the flowers are all still blooming which amazes me. The grounds here are just impeccably gorgeous! CCI is very fortunate that Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts/Snoopy comic strip, and his wife Jean Schulz donated the 11 acres and funds to build this amazing campus, home of CCI's National Headquarters and home of CCI's Northwest Applicant Program. Even though Charles Schulz has passed away, his wife Jean Schulz has very generously continued to support CCI. Mrs. Schulz sends her personal gardener over twice a week to work on the grounds here at CCI, and everyone, dogs included, enjoy the various flowers and scenery.

Everyone was so excited at breakfast, as we all knew that we would have our pre-match this morning. I was excited, but also cautiously optimistic because we were constantly warned a few times that pre-matches can be changed during the rest of this week. I have seen matches changed before, but it's not common. K has been training here at CCI for many years, so I am confident in his and S's decisions on the matches.

I was pre-matched with a dog, but out of respect for CCI's wishes, I will keep the details quiet for now. Everyone seems delighted with their pre-match. Some of us are understandably nervous and unsure, but that is normal. I didn't like either one of my two previous Hearing Dogs at first, but of course grew to love them and am so thankful to have met two wonderful Hearing Dogs and shared my life with both of them. So I look forward to welcoming and loving a new successor Hearing Dog.

As the day went on, everyone started becoming more at ease and more confident in their own dog handling skills. We practiced commands such as "no/don't", "sit", "down"; then we learned new commands such as "heel", "come", "stay" and "wait". We practiced on Fluffy (what we call the "invisible dog" that is actually a trainer) first, then we were able to start practicing on the dogs we were pre-matched with. We practiced inside at first with less distractions in a more controlled environment, then we got to go outdoors and walk around in two different sessions so that was nice to get outside for a bit, as the fog had lifted by then and it turned into a beautiful warm autumn day. 

Edited after Graduation to add this photo:

First time meeting B, during the pre-match