Coach

Photo of Coach's nametag. It is boneshaped and has a blue interior.

Coach is our fourth Southeastern Guide Dog puppy that we are raising.  

Austin (on the right holding Coach) and his cousin Connor went with me to pick up Coach.  

I'm really proud to say that one of my students at my school is the sponsor of Coach.  Austin (he's the one holding Coach in the photo above) raised $3500 during last year's walkathon and chose to name Coach after Coach Dominick Ciao, who is an inspirational coach to him.  Coach Ciao coaches football and Austin is the kicker on the team.

Photo of Coach looking up from Austin's knee.

Here's a shot of Coach on the way home.  Austin went with me to pick him up.

Coach is sitting in Austin's football locker bay with his #30 blue jersey behind him.

Here's a photo of Coach in Austin's locker bay with his #30 jersey.

Coach is being held by Coach Dom.

Here's Coach with the human Coach Dom.  They are both very calm, cool and collected.

Coach is sitting by a sign that says: Play Like a Champion Today!

We had a great season of Berkeley football!  Coach attended every home game.  Even the one that was really pouring rain. 

Here is Austin in his uniform with Coach.  Austin is posing by the fieldgoal as he is the teams kicker.



Coach went in for training on July 20th, 2013.  We have high hopes for him as he was a very calm, cool and collected dog who knew all of his commands.  We think he will do a very good job.  Keep your fingers crossed for him!

This is Fred and Coach by his sign.

This is a close-up photo of Coach's sign.

This is a photo of trainer Judy putting on the new leash and Fred saying goodbye to Coach.

Here I am crying as I hug Judy and tell her to take good care of him.

While Coach made it as a guide dog, he did not stay a guide dog.   When Kristen brought Coach home on graduation day, her personal pet did not get along with Coach and there was some growling.  Southeastern's trainer went to try to fix the situation and was unsuccessful.  Coach returned to Southeastern five days later, was reevaluated on the next day and dropped from the guide dog program that afternoon.

Coach in his harness.  

Fortunately, although being a guide dog wasn't in the cards for our boy Coach, being an amazing pet was.  The couple who fostered Coach while he was in for training were able to take Coach back permanently!!!

Copy of Coach's adoption announcement

We are so very happy that Coach is with the two people he loves so dearly!