Graduate Speech given at
Dawgs in the Ruff
CCI Benefit Golf Tournament
October 6, 2003

Hello.  My name is Sally Simcoe.  This is my service dog Ashelby, but she’s better known as Shelby.  I’d like to tell you our story.  But it’s not just our story.  It is also the story of an organization, Canine Companions for Independence.

But before you ask, I’ll tell you.  She is 13 ½ years old, and yes that is considered senior citizen, but we’re not telling her that.

11 ½ years ago I was given a great gift.  It came as a result of a lot of effort from a lot of people who didn’t know me.  I was honored and humbled at graduation to receive the leash attached to this wonderful companion who has touched my life in more ways than I ever could have ever imagined.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  It has been my honor over these 11 + years to be accompanied everywhere by Shelby.  Canine Companions didn’t owe me a dog.  Having a Canine Companion is not a right or entitlement that comes with having a disability.  CCI graduates are an elite group who work hard to earn their dog and I am proud to count myself among their numbers.

CCI is a program based on trust.  CCI trusts breeder/caretakers to care for the sires and dams that provide the “raw material” from which service dogs are made.  They see them through pregnancy and to whelp the litters of puppies.

Then the breeders trust CCI to find puppy raisers and good homes for the pups.  There they will receive proper care, basic obedience, socialization, and lots of love.  The puppy raisers entrust their matriculating dogs back to CCI where the trainers take over with advanced training.  Puppy raisers trust that the dogs will learn those advanced skills that will make them exceptional assistance dogs, and that they will receive an honest evaluation of their temperament and skill mastery.  Puppy raisers also trust that CCI has done an excellent job of selecting applicants who will use the dogs to advance their quest for independence and hopefully love them as much as the raisers did.

At team training, the instructors trust the candidates to try their best to master the skills and techniques necessary to handle the dogs safely and efficiently.  They will then entrust the lives and well being of these wonderful dogs to the candidates to be life-long partners.

As candidates become graduates, they trust CCI to provide ongoing support to ensure the on-going success of the team.

Shelby and I worked hard during team training.  In a few short weeks, I had to learn the commands that Shelby had learned through her two years of training.  I had to learn to be at least as smart as she was.  She already knew her 65 commands.  I had never had a dog before.  CCI’s job is to ensure the success of it’s graduates and so teaches the basics of owning a dog; including how to groom them, brush their teeth, keep them healthy and fit, and how to add to their repertoire of commands.

During team training, there was a lot of laughter, but there was also a share of tears.  During classes, we laughed at the antics of the dogs as they tested our “alpha” stature.  Would they ever learn to trust us, respect us, and listen to us?  There were long days of lectures and tests.  I cried when I thought we failed the “duck pond.”  That was a field trip to test our control over the dog’s distractibility.  With extra help and the incredible patience of the instructors, we took care to refine the interactions between human and canine.  I wasn’t sure I would ever gain the confidence and authority needed to make a good CCI team leader.  That made me work all the harder.  (pause) I hate to fail.

Shelby and I were bonding.  The weeks of team training flew by.  With some trepidation, on the last day of class, and with a list of tasks to complete in hand, we took our first solo outing to the mall.  We still had a lot of growing to do, but the smiles on the folks around us told us we were doing a great job.

And then, on July 25th, 1992, on the stage in Santa Rosa, Shelby’s puppy raisers, Sandra Harris and her grandson, presented me with a blue and yellow leash.  Attached to the other end was a bundle of pure golden love.  From Portland, Sandra had driven all night after work to get to Santa Rosa in time for the ceremony.  After a year of pouring their hearts, love, patience, and time – not to mention their pocketbooks – into providing a solid foundation for Shelby, and months of anxious waiting during Shelby’s advanced training, they turned her over to me, a complete stranger.

Of all the folks involved with CCI, I believe that puppy raisers are saints.  These are volunteers that do a tremendous job giving the pups a solid foundation to build on.  We once figured that they probably put 10,000 hours into working with these pups.  Then, just as they have the “perfect” dog, they turn the leash over to the trainers.  They do this for the love of dogs, but also for the love of some human that they have never met but knowing that that person needs the dog more than they can even imagine.  What could be nobler than that?

I guess I never realized how much I depended upon Shelby until she had to spend the night in the hospital for observation and tests.  My husband, Kent, was on a business trip and it was the first night I had spent truly alone in 6 years.  In the morning I was expecting Shelby to bring me my shoes.  No Shelby.  I had to get them myself.  Then I dropped my keys getting into the car.  What a hassle.  Wouldn’t it be great if Shelby could just jump out of the car and get them for me?  These are just some of the simple things that Shelby does for me automatically.

While she was in the hospital, the vets took great care of her.  Knowing she was a service dog and used to always being around people, they didn’t lock her in a cage, but instead they made a nice bed for her so they could talk to her each time they passed by.  She had a biopsy done and was coming out of anesthesia.  A vet tech dropped an instrument across the room and even though she was still groggy, Shelby went over, picked it up, and handed it to the person.  Now isn’t that the service dog work ethic?

Sometimes we graduates become invisible by having the dog with us all the time.  I’ve had people say good morning to Shelby and totally ignore me.  When I just keep going on my merry way, they called me rude.  Excuse me?  Were you talking to me?  Sometimes we have to remind people that there really is a person on the other end of the leash.

These dogs become integral members of the family.  In fact, I truly believe that they do not see themselves as dogs but as fuzzy people.  After all, they are with us 24/7/365.  They go everywhere with us and are always in people places.  Given her choice, Shelby would pick people over dogs any day.  Just ask any of the puppies here tonight.

In March 2002, Kent, became increasingly paralyzed from a spinal tumor.  Shelby took on the double duty of working for him as well.  Though she always knew she was my dog, she responded to his commands with the same enthusiasm that she followed through for me.

When he was in the hospital undergoing chemotherapy, he had limited direct contact.  Shelby would go into his room, wag her tail and smile at him, and then settle into her nook under the sink.  Sometimes as we were getting ready to leave, Kent would ask me to put some gloves on him so he could pet Shelby.  I’m not sure how much of this she understood, but she was always very careful around all the tubing and paraphernalia.  When we got home, she would search the house for him and then lay in the front hallway.  From there, she could keep watch on all of the doors into the house waiting for him to come home.

Kent died that May.  As I was planning the memorial service, I was gathering items that represented special moments in his life to put on a display table at the church.  There were pictures of him and his kids, CDs and videos from our business, patents, and awards.  The house was in disarray.  I told Shelby to pick up her toys and put them away.  She picked up her racquetball and put in his box.  I told her no, and to put it in her toy basket.  She got the ball, and put it back into his box.  Again, I tried to get her to put it away and again it went back into his box.  Then I realized, this was her memorial to him.  He was, after all, her ball-playing partner.  Needless to say, the ball went onto the memorial table with it’s own descriptive plaque.  She was grieving too.

She helped me make it through this terrible first year without Kent.  By having her to focus on, I was able to stay on track, to live life fully as he would have wanted.  By having her assistance, I didn’t have to ask for as much help from others.  By having her love, I wasn’t as lonely.  She helped me realize that life goes on.

Well, we worked hard in 1992 to become a team and we still work hard to ensure that we put forth the most positive image of CCI and assistance dogs.  Wherever we go, we are ambassadors for CCI.  We take the time to educate the public about service dogs and about people with disabilities.  We show them how, with a little help from a friend, especially the four-legged kind, disabled people can function just like anyone else.

Shelby and I give a lot of ourselves to CCI.  Using Shelby as my example, we give freely, not out of guilt or obligation, but out of the joy we have received.  We give of ourselves to enable others, just as others gave to enable us.  I know I could never fully pay back the organization for the great gift I was given.  I can only strive to be deserving of the trust placed on me by each level of the CCI family.

As you can imagine, it takes support from many people to make teams like us possible.  CCI receives no government funding.  Now isn’t that refreshing? 

Graduates pay only a small fee for the supplies provided by CCI when they receive their dog.  The rest of the funding comes from organizations, foundations, individuals, and events like this.  Wherever folks gather to support the mission of CCI to provide exceptional dogs for exceptional people, generous individuals open their hearts and wallets to provide independence and unconditional love.

My eternal thanks go to everyone involved in providing these wonderful dogs.  From the breeder/caretakers, puppy raisers, trainers, and CCI staff, to graduates, mentors, donors, and volunteers.  There is a special place in my heart for each one of you.  Thank you for Shelby and the honor of being a graduate of Canine Companions for Independence.  Thank you for making me one of those exceptional people.   

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