A really cool feature of this program is that every semester we change the dogs (and people) that we work with! This page features all of the dogs that I have worked with and a little about them! If you want to see some pictures of the dogs, you find it here.
TORYWhile I didn't do any actual training with Tory, she did stay at the dog house for a couple of weeks to be available for the interns to take to class the first semester of the program. Batman (my roommate) and I took her and her sister to campus to get used to being on campus with a dog and used them to get the campus used to the idea of having dogs on campus as a part of the environment now. It was a pleasure having both of them there because they allowed me to get comfortable with having a dog before actually diving in with training a dog. Tory was a part of the prison program that PawPADs ran for a couple of years, so she was trained in a prison and knows a bunch of tasks and tricks. She is so wickedly smart and loving! She is also PawPADs demo dog and on hand service dog. She knows so many task and is so bulletproof that Linda has taken her to Mongolia and a bunch of other places to demonstrate the tasks that assistance dogs can do!
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CocoAgain, I didn't do any actual training with Coco for assistance work, but she was there at the beginning of my time in the program and it was so helpful having her there to help show me the ropes. I got weirdly bonded to Coco and she will forever hold a place in my heart for some unknown reason. I took her home for Thanksgiving my first year in the program and she was an absolute perfect dog there. Maddie and I tried to teach her to "go to bed" while she was at the dog house and we also taught her how to "have a question" like her sister Tory. Her story is similar to her sister Tory's; however, she was really good at diabetic alert, but at age 5 it was really hard to find a placement that would work with her, so she was career changed. She now works as a courthouse dog in Minnesota. She provides comfort to victims of abuse and I think she's going to do wonderful with that job. I miss her everyday and hope to see her some time in the future!
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BenjiThis little fluff ball was the first dog that I was actually partnered with. He came into the program as 2 year old (he turned 2 while I was working with him). He was rescued at 6 months from a hoarding situation. Since he had been at PawPADs for 1.5 years before we got him to work with him, he knew a lot of the tasks that we were working on and learning in class. However, because of when he was rescued, he missed a lot of developmental steps in socialization, so he often lacked the confidence that was needed in new situations. So my partner Ashley and I worked a lot on building up his confidence in those situations! He flourished on campus and was so good by the end of the semester. He was really resilient on campus and got really good at peeing on leash (in the beginning of the semester he would hold it the entire day). We weren't sure how well he would do on campus, but we saw how well he did in a specific location consistently, so we decided to career change him to be a school resource dog! A school resource dog is a dog that works in a specific school and helps out the principal or school psychologist with their jobs to make the school environment better for the students!
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GantherThis beautiful golden boy was my second dog that I worked with. He is so wickedly smart that he loved to learn so many new things. He came knowing squish really well and would do it anytime that I would lay down! He is a purpose bred golden retriever that turned 1 year when I was working with him. I worked with him on both mobility assist and diabetic alert; however, he didn't really seem to care about the scent samples, so I worked with him more on the mobility tasks. He did really well with them. I even got into a wheelchair once which he did really well with. He loved to get my laundry out of the dryer and put it into the basket. I worked on so many different tasks with him and I saw improvements in all of them! Ganther has now graduated as of June 25th, 2020. He is now working as a facility dog at a nursing home providing comfort to the patients there. It is the perfect job for him because of how gentle he is and how much he loves people. I am so happy to see him changing many people's lives everyday!
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NeecoI started working with Neeco in May when Jenny brought him home for the summer, so I was shocked and loved the fact that I was placed with him for the first semester of my senior year! We continued the work that we started over the summer. During the semester, I started to carry diabetic alert samples with me because he showed real talent and skill to being able to identify the scent. He kind of told us that he wanted to be a diabetic alert dog because he wasn't too eager to do the mobility assist tasks unless a treat was present. He will just alert whether or not he's reward for it! He's matured so much since I first met him and I couldn't be more proud of him! He is a black lab that was rescued from a puppy mill and he continues to overcome challenges that may have hindered other dogs, like his retinal folds. He is full of spunk and a real pleasure to work with! Because of his spunky personality, it was hard to find the right fit for him and instead he's being release to my friends Rachael and Jenny!!! I am so excited to be his aunt and spoil him rotten!!
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Darby
Darby is the last dog that I will be training as a part of this program. That makes me sad, but she also had so much potential that came out during the semester. Darby is a golden-lab cross, which honestly is one of my favorite breeds/crosses out there and I am so excited to work with her. When we first got her, she was a little bit timid and on the shy side, Jenny and I started working with her right away and we could just see her brain turn on when we brought out the clicker and started to train with her. She has such a good nose that we're excited to start working on diabetic alert with her, which she was a wizard at (Thanks Jenny!). She has learned so much so quickly that it was just amazing to see all of the progress she made.! She is so food motivated that it's easy to work with her on things. She gets so tired from all of the training that she just sleeps through my classes now, in the beginning of the semester, she would try to chew on her harness or leash, but that has all but disappeared by the end of the semester! She learned so much and I am so glad to say that she was my last trained dog! Darby has now moved on to amazing work - as of June 25th, 2020, she has been placed as a diabetic alert dog. Her and her human hit it off right away and bonded so quickly. She will be attending college again in the fall, but now with a job to do. I am so proud to be a part of the process of training her!
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