My New Life (By: Carlo)

Now that I've had some to settle back into being home, I've had some time to think about my new life!

First of all, after being home a few days, I realized that since I'm no longer a puppy (I'll be 2 years old on June 22!)... and since my puppy raiser is no longer raising me... she's technically not really my "puppy raiser" any more. I asked her if I should call her something else and she said, "Carlo, my sweet boy, you can call me whatever you want to call me." So, I decided to call her what Lucky calls her... "my pal"! Cause that's what she is to me... she's my pal and I love hanging out with her! She told me that I'm her pal too! But, she said she is going to keep calling me the nickname she has always called me... "sweet boy". I love it when she calls me that!

As I've mentioned in another blog, now that I'm no longer a CCI dog in training, I'm what is called a Change of Career (COC) dog. The more my puppy raiser (errrr, I mean pal) and I have been talkin', the more excited I am about my new career! We have already been looking into getting me certified to do therapy work through the Delta Society. This will require that we take a Team Training course. Then, we are going be tested and we'll be evaluated to see if we would make a good therapy team. I sure hope we pass cause personally... I think my pal and I make a great team! :-)

Meanwhile, I have been performing the very important job of being assistant puppy raiser to Gerrit! I've been telling him how important it is to be a good boy... and I've been giving him the scoop on what he'll be expected to know once in college. The photo above is of me havin' a little heart to heart chat with Gerrit. He's a bright little guy and I think he will do well!

Tonight I even got to help out at Gerrit's CCI puppy class! I was used a distraction as all the pups in class walked on a let's go. And, I even was used to demo how to teach a dog to do a down with his/her hip turned toward the puppy raiser. This is super important for pups to learn so that their paws don't get run over when working next to someone in a wheelchair. It was so much fun being at puppy class! I got to see all of my old puppy raiser buddies... and I smiled at all of them!

I must say... it sure is good being home! I LOVE my forever home... and I LOVE my new career! Life is good!