Canine Companions for Independence's
Breeder Korina

A smiling momma-Korina (02/05/02)

The Story of CCI and Korina

Korina is our sweet, beautiful black lab / golden retreiver cross. She is a breeder for Canine Companions for Independence, in Santa Rosa, California. She belongs to CCI, but will live with us, her Breeder Caretakers, for the rest of her life. She is expected to have 5 or 6 litters of puppies in her breeding career.

CCI is a national non-profit organization that enhances the lives of people with disabilities by providing highly trained assistance dogs. The breeding and puppy-training is accomplished by volunteers, while the advanced dog training, and human-dog team training is done by professional trainers (with the support of many volunteers).

As Korina's Breeder Caretakers we have agreed to whelp her litters of puppies in our home, providing care, play and lots of love to them for the first several weeks of life. At eight weeks, the puppies are turned into the Northwest Training Center for health checks, and are then sent out to their Puppy Raisers all across the country. Puppy Raisers have the puppies in their homes for a little over a year, are agree to introduce the puppies to new people and situations, attend basic obedience classes, of course,provide lots of love, play, and attention! In a little over a year, the pups will head back to one of five CCI National Training centers for advanced training, and those that pass will be placed with a person with a disability. (Those that don't succeed in Advanced Training "change careers" and are adopted as pets, or into other kinds of service such as therapy or search and rescue dogs.)

These dogs bring the miracle of love, support, and independence to their disabled owners. By the time Korina's first litter of puppies graduate, she will have had more puppies, and the process will continue. Some people wait a lifetime for a miracle, at CCI we raise them one (or more) at a time.

Korina's Vital Statistics

Korina is Black Lab / Golden Retriever mix (3/4 Lab, 1/4 Golden)
Her Sire is "Quester II" (Black Lab), and her Dam "Terry" (1/2 Lab 1/2 Golden), and she had 12 other littermates!
She was born May 6, 2000, and weighs about 57 pounds
She was raised by her "Puppy Raisers" in Longview, Washington
She came back to CCI's Regional Training Center in Santa Rosa in August 2001 for advanced training and screening to become a breeder.
She came home with us October 20th, 2001, and officially adopted her November 2nd, 2001.
She is sweet, and charming, playful and very smart!

Korina even has her own song! (Which is over 70 years old and been recorded over 100 times!) I heard from her Mom's Breeder Caretaker that Korina was named for the song. Check out the "Corrine, Corrina Web Site." Her favorite versions are on the "Corrina, Corrina" Soundtrack from the movie of the same name (you can hear a clip of it), and Eric Clapton's "Alberta" (same song, different name) on his "Unplugged" Album.

Korina's Litters

Korina had her first litter of puppies on January 26th, 2002!!

Read about the birth of the "H" litter, see pictures of their growth and development, and of their lives as "ADITs" (Assistance Dogs in Training!) with their Puppy Raiser's all across the country.

Korina should have her next litter in late August 2002.

How did Korina become a breeder?

Because we had raised a puppy for CCI back in 1988 (see the story of Dawn), we knew about the Breeder program. In April 2001 we applied to become Breeder Caretakers, and then waited for the call "our girl" was ready for us. In October 2001 we got the call, and were told her name was Korina. It was love at first sight! So we officially adopted her, and made her part of our family. (See pictures of her "Welcome Home!"). While Korina will spend her life with us, for the next 5 years, or so, she will provide Service Dog puppies to the CCI program.

Only the top 5% of dogs in Advanced Training are pulled out to be breeders, so we are very proud of Korina! And there are puppy raisers all around the country waiting for her pups, to help them get started on their Service Dog careers.