The relationships are short. The parting is heartbreaking, but the end rewards are great if one of these dogs graduates and is able to help a disabled person.

Lance Martin | Daily Herald Becky Flynn gives a command to Zyla. Flynn and her husband, Erroll, are teaching the dog 30 basic commands that will lay the foundation for the dog to become a companion guide for disabled people. Advertisement

Since 2004, Becky and Errol Flynn have gone through two of these relationships and are now working on a third, a lab-retriever pup named Zyla, who next week will go to Orlando for more advanced training so she can possibly become part of Canine Companions for Independence.

The first dog the Flynns raised, Murphie, is now a companion dog for a 9-year-old girl in Hillsborough. The second one did not make the cut and was adopted by a local dentist.

The graduation rate for these dogs is about 40 percent, Becky said at the T.J. Davis Recreation Center yesterday, while demonstrating some of the 30 commands Zyla has learned. These commands form the foundation for additional training so the dogs can help people with disabilities. “If they graduate they’ve got to be as near perfect as possible,” she says. “They try to help us understand it’s not what you’ve done, it’s the personality of the dog. It may not be cut out for it. The dog has to want to do it.”

One test Becky shows is where Zyla must not dash for food that falls onto the floor, something that can happen in real life. She drops Zyla’s treats on the gym floor and while the dog has a look of eagerness, almost appearing to want to go for the food, she doesn’t, looks Becky in the eyes and ends up receiving a treat for not yielding to temptation.

The 30 commands the dog learns will help it learn the tasks needed to help a disabled person, Errol said. “Open drawers, put someone’s socks on, pull the covers up.”

The dogs will learn to turn lights on, pick up a credit card off a slick floor and even hand a credit card to a cashier.

To help the dog make the adjustment, it goes everywhere the Flynns go. “She goes to church, restaurants,” Errol said. “She went to Wake Medical with me. We’ve visited every restaurant in Roanoke Rapids.”

Becky learned of these dogs, who are identified by a bright yellow cape with the CCI logo, when she saw one while working at the city’s Aquatic Center pool here during State Games. “I fell down on my knees and said ‘How could I do this?’ It’s a huge commitment knowing you have to give her up.”

“It’s a 24-hour job,” Errol adds.

The volunteers receive the dogs when they are 8-weeks-old and are trained 15 months before going to Orlando for their finishing school. The parting is tough, Becky admits. “We cry a lot,” she said. “We never call her ‘our dog.’”

Despite the tears, the work becomes worth it, especially when a dog like Murphie graduates, and goes on to aid a person the program is intended to help.

Because Murphie is relatively close, the Flynns get to see her occasionally or at the trail ride they sponsor on their farm in Conway to benefit CCI.

The Flynns can’t predict whether Zyla will graduate. If she doesn’t she will be considered for other uses. “The ones that don’t pass have a chance to be used for other programs, drug dogs, bomb dogs,” Becky said. “They are also adopted out.”

Doing this is not for everyone, the Flynns, who most likely will train another dog after Zyla, said. The initial telephone interview of prospective applicants was an hour-and-a-half long and CCI sent someone to their house.

The most important thing, other than helping disabled people, is education, Becky said, helping people realize the capabilities of these dogs go beyond the common notion of seeing-eye dogs. “I’ve had people say ‘it’s the blind dog,’” Flynn recalls. “Now they accept the dog.”

And they have seen the difference Murphie has made in the 9-year-old’s life. “The dog has completely changed her life,” Errol said. “Kids used to stare at her and say things. Now when they see her in the store or somewhere they run up to her.”

For more information  log onto www.cci.org