Hi, my name is Allie and I am currently a former student of University of Wisconsin-River Falls and now I attend at Madison Area Technical College! There I was part of an internship at UWRF that is partnered with Pawsitive Perspective Assistance Dogs to train assistance dogs. PawPADs is an organization that is based out of Minnesota that dual trains dogs for mobility assist and diabetic alert. Welcome to my blog! It has surely been a journey to get where I am currently, so here is my story:
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As a child, I always had a dream to train service dogs as a "side job" of whatever I was doing. I applied to UWRF because they offered both an amazing biology department and animal science department. At first when I came into college, I was a biology major in hopes to be a zookeeper because I really liked the idea of working with exotic animals and I really liked animal behavior. However, after careful consideration of how tough of a field it is to get into, I decided to change my major to animal science with hopes to become a veterinary technician. I started taking animal science courses and I absolutely fell in love with my choice! An opportunity came up my sophomore year to apply to the Assistance Dog Training program at my school, so of course, I applied and got accepted into the program.
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Then, they offered on top of that an opportunity to live in the house of the program, which would allow me to live with the dogs that we would also be training, so of course, I took the opportunity to live in the awesomeness that is dogs 24/7. We have lovingly called it "The Dog House" hence, the Dog House Chronicles.
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I lived in the Dog House for a year, but then chose to move in with some of my friends into an apartment elsewhere, where I am living currently. It is definitely a shift from living at the dog house, but I wouldn't change it for anything. I still get to house a dog and it honestly is one of the best experiences in the world. Every day I am more and more grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this industry to help those who need it through the dogs that we are training.
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I love this program because of the amazing opportunities it has allowed me to become more empathetic to those who have disabilities and need a dog in their lives to ease some of the stress that come with the disability. This program has also helped me to make more friends with people that I would've normally never met or interacted with to become friends. Everyone in our internship has become my family while I am up here at River Falls and knowing that people have my back and are there for me is just one of the many perks of being in this program and being a part of the PawPADs family. These dogs not only can open physical doors, but they have also opened up so many doors for me to experience college more fully.
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I am now a graduate of University of Wisconsin-River Falls with a Bachelor's of Science in Animal Science-Companion Animal Emphasis and 2 minors: Chemistry and Psychology. I am now attending Madison Area Technical College (Madison College) in their Veterinary Technology program to become a certified Veterinary Technician. I plan to use the knowledge and skills I learned at UWRF and the internship to better serve the animals that we hold near and dear to our heart. Thank you to everyone who has been there for me on my journey.
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