I'll only be discussing the application process for a Service Dog. The application processes for the other types of dogs that CCI places (Skilled Companions, Hearing Dogs, Facility Dogs) are different from the process I'm going through.
Whether someone's applying for the first time or they're applying for a successor dog, the first set of paperwork is pretty much the same. First, there's an eight page application that asks ALL kinds of questions. CCI needs to know about my disability, mobility, and general health. They also need to know about my residence, household, and what kind of environment my home is like (busy, calm, kids, pets, yard, etc.). There are questions about my level of education, my job, my lifestyle and my hobbies. I'm asked to diagram a typical week in my life. Of course there are also questions about my personality and what I'm looking for in a Service Dog partner. There are plenty of opportunities on the application for me to express any hesitencies or questions I might have (in my case, none!). Lastly, CCI needs to know if things like coat color, sex, breed, and size are important to me and makes sure I am aware that I'm financially responsible for all aspects of the service dog's care. I've greatly simplified what's on this questionnaire...it took me many hours to complete it to the best of my abilities!!!
If the dog will be a successor, there is a one page successor questionnaire included in the initial application packet. The questions are basically about how the previous placement ended, what kind of placement it was, and where the dog is now (retirement plans). In my case, my last dog is deceased, so filling this form out was kind of tough.
There is a "Training Assistant Questionnaire" to be filled out by the person I'm planning to bring with me to team training. Not everyone needs a training assistant. I didn't have one last time. Still, though, CCI asks applicants to identify someone who can come to team training, participate to whatever degree needed, and generally support the applicant - team training is full of pretty long days that can be physically and emotionally demanding. This person would also be the one to assist the applicant once the team gets home with anything from grooming to feeding to exercising or toileting the dog if/when the team needs a helping hand.
We are asked to write and include in our application packet a short autobiography. I don't know how it is for other people, but I'm lousy at writing this kind of thing. So strange to try to summarize my life! Nevertheless, I dug in, did my best, and produced a two-page-long autobiography.
Finally, we are asked to include at least 3 photos of ourselves, the medical equipment we most often use, our home, and a photo of the Training Assistant we'll potentially bring to team training with us.
Whew!!!
I don't know how long this takes other people, but I will say that it's quite a bit of work to thoroughly answer all of the questions, get your potential training assistant to fill out their application, write the autobiography, get the needed photos, then put it all together in a big envelope (after having checked repeatedly to make sure nothing's been missed!) to be mailed to CCI! Confession time! It took me awhile to decide I was ready for another dog from CCI, but once I made the decision to apply for a successor I also decided to focus on this process and get though it reasonably quickly. I actually dropped everything and spent about a week just working on getting all of this together.
IIRC, I sent my application in via overnight mail on March 14th. Why the overnight mail? The 14th was a Thursday and I wanted to make sure my packet got to CCI when people were on campus. I guess I could have waited to mail it, looking back, but my completed application arrived on March 15th, 2013.
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