feature
Check out this story's photo gallery, which includes photos of writer Becka Cremer's dog Trego, at www.kansan.com/jayplay.
Photo by Becka Cremer
Catalpa, a KSDS puppy, waits under a table at T.G.I.Friday's in Shawnee while her puppy raises eat dinner. In Kansas, businesses are not required to allow puppies in training access; but as long as the puppies are wearing their vests, it is legal for them to be in restaurants.
takes Goblin to the hospital all the time.
The visit to Braddy's mom would have been an opportunity to teach Goblin about being in a hospital.
"It doesn't make sense," Brooke Langdon, Abeline junior and former puppy raiser, says. "Nothing changes about the fact that they shed and that they're a dog just because they graduate."
After raising three KSDS dogs, Langdon understands something I sometimes forget: As impressive as their future jobs are, these dogs are still dogs. And Trego is still a puppy.
When we're out in public, I have to be aware of Trego's tail—the Labrador's No. I weapon. And, even though she is potty trained and usually asks to go out, I always have a poop bag in my pocket. Just in case.
During our trips out, I am constantly correcting her, asking her to walk nicely on a leash, to ignore bits of food and pieces of trash on the ground and, most importantly, to pay attention to me. We work on basic obedience—sit, stay, heel, etc.—but with the added distractions of new people, smells and sounds. It would be impossible to teach Trego these things at home, because our environment is too controlled; she needs to know how to pay attention to me whatever our surroundings.
With Trego in tow, even a simple trip to Target becomes a training opportunity. We spend extra time in the toy aisles, for example. I push
College students considering committing to puppy raising need to understand that it isn't just something you can do on the weekends, says Dave Downing, professor of aerospace engineering and former puppy raiser. He says raising a puppy for service requires a lifestyle change similar to that of having children, but just for a short time.
It's like having a child
the buttons on every electronic toy I can find, working to make sure nothing she'll encounter as an adult will scare her and distract her from doing her job. Soon, Trego will attend her first concert and go to her first bar. I hope we'll get a chance to attend a keg party and a basketball game this semester, too.
When Trego and I walked into church on the Sunday before Christmas, I was armed with the Missouri law—puppies in training have the same access rights as assistance dogs—and pamphlets about KSDS. I thought I was prepared for anything. But when the band started playing and Trego joined in, I began to panic. Just wait it out. She'll stop singing when they stop. I told myself it was going to be OK, that she would calm down when the service began. Then, the pastor released the children to go to their children's church activities. Oh no.
Trego's favorite people are ones who are
I've had this puppy for five months and I can't think of a better analogy.
quickly won out. I walked Trego away from the congregation and into a stairwell in the back of the church and fought tears as I tried to calm her down.
less than three feet tall. She especially loves children who smell like food or scream and run around a lot. The mass exodus of children made Trego bark even more loudly. Mom! Do you see the kids? Look! Kids! They're leaving! LET'S GO! Her yelps and whines were very clear: She wanted to go to children's church, too.
I tried everything I could think of to get Trego to stop barking, but my embarrassment
A young mother, carrying her child, approached us. "We all go through this," she told me. I wiped tears out of my eyes and replied. "But no one thinks you should have left yours at home."
puppy manners
A dog's vest signals to people—and to the dog—that it is working. Whether the dog is in training or with a partner, it's important to ask the person who is with the dog for permission before talking to or touching the dog.
In most cases, a puppy raiser will allow people to interact with the puppy, but only if the dog is behaving Larry Braddy says he makes a point of allowing children to pet Cinnamon, the dog he's raising for KSDS, but only if the child asks first. This way both the child and the dog learn something about interacting with each other, says Braddy, vice chairman of the KSDS puppy raiser board.
But after a dog has graduated, when it is in public with its partner, the dog cannot be
distracted. If a dog has a sign that says something like, "I'm working, please don't touch." Braddy says, don't be offended. The dog just needs to be able to work distraction-free. Beth Sakumura, 1983 graduate, compares talking to a dog that is working to grabbing the steering wheel of a car when someone else is driving. Distracting the dog puts the person in danger; she says.
In addition to understanding that the dog is doing its job, people should be aware that the person relying on the dog is living his life, says Nancy Giossi, executive assistant in the office of the director of the department of continuing education. "They've got their lives," she says. "They're already busy. You're just one of 10 people to stop them that day."
February 5,2009
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