My Poke Project

I’m late to update, but we are so thrilled that Poke matched with his perfect person! He and Courtney will have a great life and we are looking forward to all they will accomplish together. Congratulations!!

Poke pre-matched as a service dog and should be graduating on Friday! We are so excited and proud! If you’d like to watch the graduation it will be live-streamed Friday at noon.

South Central Region Graduations | Canine Companions Join the South Central graduates and their Canine Companions service dogs as they team up and embark on their new lives. Learn more.

Poke, blue looks good on you. Go find your perfect match buddy!

Congratulations to this group entering Team Training at the South Central Region during the week of May 3, 2026.

L-R
Top: Durango, Yancy, Poke, Finton, Diggory, Pepper, Kroix, Winston

Front: Beaumont, Tonic, Pruitt, Tony, Noah

This sweet boy got to attend a gala!

We got a new report on Poke’s progress in professional training. He is such an enthusiastic and hard worker. He is super excited to open doors and retrieve various objects. He is also working around various adaptive equipment and learning to match pace with whoever is working with him. So proud of this smart boy!

We received Poke’s January report and he’s doing great! He’s learning to push handicapped door plates, turn on lights, and more! He just needs to be a little less excited about what’s going on around him. Keep working hard sweet boy!

We got our pictures back from turn in day. Just look at this handsome boy!!

Today was an emotional and wonderful day. Poke matriculated with Canine Companions and is now ready to begin his professional career. He will spend 6-9 months with his amazing trainer Leah where he will finish learning all of his service dog commands. We got to tour campus and have pro photos made. We saw our friends the Padens, met Lily & Fleur, saw a UCA puppy graduate, saw our favorite grad coordinator Aubrey, and many more. We also got to witness the last class of graduates for 2025. Hearing the recipients speak about the impact these service dogs will make in each of their lives eases the pain of saying “see you later”. We look forward to his graduation day when we see him again and congratulate him on being the teacher’s pet (thanks Pam Crosson for the tip!).

We drive to Irving, TX to turn Poke in on Friday for his professional training. We have had lots of talks with him about how he has been made to do amazing things. We remind him that we will never stop loving him and can’t wait to watch him soar. In the meantime, we are trying to get in all of the snuggles and hand holding we can.