Hildi is a big, frisky puppy learning to obey commands such as “sit” and “stay” and to remain calm in crowds.  The years will tell if she can learn to open and close doors, pick up dropped items, pull someone in a wheelchair or alert a deaf person  to the sounds of doorbells, fire alarms and other important noises.
The Labrador-golden retriever mix, a late December arrival at the home of Jim and Dot Mohs, marks the Tybee Island couple’s fourth stint since 2002 as certified volunteer “puppy raisers” for Canine Companions International.
The nonprofit organization provides highly trained assistance dogs free of charge to disabled people who can demonstrate that these special animals will enhance their independence and quality of life.
Before any such partnerships can happen, the puppies, specially bred by CCI, are shipped to raisers such as the Mohs, who will spend 14 to16 months “socializing” the dogs before they are sent off for advanced training at Canine Companions’ regional centers.  
Dogs that pass months of rigorous training in specialized tasks can eventually be paired with a person, as have two puppies that the Mohs previously raised.
Hoku and Raleigh —  CCI pups arrive already named — are both in Florida, partnered with young men with cerebral palsy-autism and muscular dystrophy.
The Mohs’ fourth dog, Banyon, is back at their house after being “released” from CCI’s advanced training, as are some 65 percent of the candidate dogs who enter that program.  
“The report card said he had an ‘inappropriate’ level of energy,” Jim said.  “He probably didn’t obey the commands as well as they would like.”  
There’s a necessary temperamental difference, he pointed out, between Canine Companions’ dogs and the seeing-eye dogs provided to the blind: “Seeing-eye dogs have to be leaders.  Our dogs have to be followers.”
But don’t cry for Banyon — the amiable yellow-black Lab mix, who now tops 80 pounds, has found a new calling as a therapy dog taken on visits to local nursing homes.  
Dot Mohs said: “You never know when you turn one in (for advanced training), whether they’re going to make it.  (But) I haven’t seen a single one that has a bad disposition.”
The Mohs, visited at their north beach home in late February, when Hildi had just turned four months old, have agreed to take her to at least two professional training sessions per month.  She is learning 35 to 40 basic commands, including stop, sit, stay, here, and heel; during the visit, Jim was using dog treats to reward Hildi when she listened well and sharp tugs on her leash to get her attention when she didn’t.
As for the socialization part, Hildi will be taken to public places such as shopping malls, ball games and restaurants, so she can get used to being around people.  
The Americans with Disabilities Act clearly allows for “service dogs” in public facilities, though Jim notes that service dogs in training — like Hildi — represent a legal grey area.  But in six years of CCI puppy raising in the Savannah area, Jim said the Mohs have only been asked to leave one shopping center and one restaurant because they brought a dog in.  Fellow diners normally enjoy petting the dogs, though one party asked to be seated at a table farther away.
The Mohs have lived on Tybee for 11 years, though they still maintain a home in Smyrna.  After Jim retired as an airline cargo pilot, they became involved in Canine Companions, which he learned about 12 years ago from a promotional video showing in a mall.  
Puppy raisers agree to pay for their charges’ food and routine veterinary and other expenses.  Subsequent stages — getting an adult dog all the way through graduation — push total costs to about $50,000 per animal, by CCI estimates.
The organization, founded in 1975 in Santa Rosa, Calif., gets no government funding; it relies solely on corporate and individual donations to carry out its efforts, so members organize fund-raising events.  The Georgia chapter of Canine Companions will hold its sixth annual Athens Run for the dogs in that city on Sept. 13.
CCI, which now has five regional centers across the country, saw 300 “graduate” dogs paired with humans in 2007.  In February 2008, it provided its first service dog to an Iraq War veteran, a first lieutenant who had lost a leg in an improvised bomb explosion.
One day the Mohs will take a full-grown Hildi to Canine Companions’ Southeast regional center in Orlando, Fla. (where Sea World is a big corporate sponsor).  
The question they and other puppy raisers hear most is: “How can you give up the dog?  I couldn’t.”  Jim said: “When you see the independence and life enhancement provided by these dogs, it makes it a lot easier to turn them in for advanced training.”
 For more information about Canine Companions, go to www.ccigeorgia.com.