Francie's Progress

So to my delight, I received the most wonderful return email from the officer that is training with Francie for her sniff training/narcotics role. I had invited them to this Friday's CCI Graduation (as Fay, Francie's sister has been matched and there will be a total of 12 teams graduating with their new partners!)
Here is the email I received back from Officer Tom: my heart is bursting with pride for the wonderful progress Francie is making.

Vickie,

Unfortunately Francie and I can not make the CCI graduation Feb 11. Francie and I are in narcotic detection school, week 3 of 5.

Francie is doing great, she knows all the narcotic odors and alerts to the scent by scratching at it. The scratching was no easy task, because Francie is such a polite dog.

My biggest challenge with Francie is showing her she can be "bad" to find the drugs.

We will come down there to visit and also to come to another graduation. I am allowed to take field trips, especially to the people who raised an awesome partner for me.


And I while I pick up my 6th puppy on Feb. 18, this chapter is far from over as I follow sweet Francie Pant's path.
Good girl Francie, good dog.

A Black Among Blondes

So I am puppy sitting a friend's CCI PIP (pup-in-program) while he is in the hospital...sadly enough he may not even be well enough in time, to get to take his pup Tatiana across the stage for Matriculation when the ceremony takes place August 14th.
I hope for the best for him; in the meantime I offered to puppy sit his sweet, petite Tatiana II. Here's a photo of her. Isn't she darling?
I've never had a black lab to raise for CCI myself, I prefer the blondes for various reasons but Tatiana is a darling.

She is Francie's buddy and in the same classes on Monday nights. They are just weeks apart in age and Tat is, in fact the pup Francie has done several trips with this year (like Yosemite and Easter weekend in Orange County). So they get along quite well.

Yet it's Linda's week so Francie and Tatiana are not here at my home together. I took Tat to puppy class this week, and while Linda handled Francie, I did Tatiana's commands during class. She is so solid with her commands, but alas -she has some real challenges while at home; she tends to alert bark when she hears sounds.

Practicing the "back" command


Coming to the "side" command


A finished "side" command; she seeks approval

From her body language she obviously knows she's doing something that's not permitted but it's as if she can't help herself. And right after doing so she'll come over to me and fawn for attention as if to apologize. Well they are who they are, so we'll see how she does in Advanced Training.

Her future is up to her. (as it always is for all of these pups)

P.S. Kerry III, my first CCI pup to raise and now a COC (change of career) dog turns 9 TODAY, JULY 22.
Hard to believe she was the little pup that started me down this road 9 years ago.
Love you Kerry!