Clad in their bright jackets and frequently drawing a crowd of admiring students, guide dogs are impossible to miss while walking around the University of Guelph campus.
Kristina Seidel is the President of the University of Guelph Campus Lions Club, which is a campus-based offshoot of the Guelph Lions Club. Among other community services, the Lions Club raises money and recruits volunteers to train service dogs. It’s one of three main dog guide programs on campus, with the others being the National Service Dogs Association and the Autism Dog Services.
“It brightens everyone’s day,” Kristina Seidel said of walking around campus with her guide dog in-training, Yellsea. “I find no matter how miserable the weather outside is, how stressed everyone is, or how busy with midterms, you walk past with a puppy and everyone just instantly smiles. It’s a nice feeling, and I know there are a lot of people I meet who say, ‘I’ve had a really bad day today, but thank you for letting me pet the puppy’…I think it’s good for their entire spirit.”
“Guelph is known for their puppies on campus,” continued Seidel. “It’s just an overall positive experience for the students, and it’s great for the puppies: where else can they learn in such a busy environment, with going to classes and meeting all these people? And learning to ignore all these people, too!”
Getting used to being surrounded by people is a huge part of a guide dog’s training because they follow their owners everywhere they go.
“We get the puppies when they’re around seven-or-eight-weeks-old,” said Seidel. “We’re teaching them to sit, lie down, and stay, and just the basic socializing part. Wherever we go, the puppy goes. That’s the important part, because in the future, when the client goes somewhere with the dog, the dog is comfortable with that because the dog has experienced it. So anything from going to classes, going to the mall, going to the grocery store, learning how to ride an elevator or an escalator, how to go on public transit—anything you can think of, really.”
Of course, taking care of a puppy 24-hours a-day, seven-days-a-week, isn’t always easy, especially for student volunteers with busy schedules.
“Not going to lie, it was challenging at first, but for me, it almost helps me organize my time better because your puppy is on such a schedule that you know if he’s going to be sleeping for the next two hours, then you better get your studying done in those next two hours,” said Seidel. “But yeah, it’s definitely a lot of organizing at the beginning. Especially when they’re little—lots of pee breaks and going outside and making sure if the puppy’s not comfortable, you need to leave the lecture at that point.”
“You expect it’s going to be hard work,” said Bianca Low Kum, another guide dog volunteer. “You go to the library and you’re like, ‘No, please don’t pee, puppy,’ and you book it out the doors. I’ve had moments where we were moments away from the doors, and he squats and starts peeing, and we thought ‘Oh, no!’”
Fortunately, services are available for student volunteers who feel overwhelmed with the responsibilities of both school and taking care of their dogs.
“We have such a great society because there’s not only raisers on campus, but we have such a big community, that if we need help with something, there are always puppy sitters that are available,” said Seidel. “We can contact the organization and get in touch with somebody, and if you need a little break, the puppy can go there. If they’re older, they can go to a kennel at our kennel facility, or you can ask another puppy raiser on campus.”
However, cuddling up to a guide dog can sometimes be just what stressed students need.
“But for me,” said Seidel, “it always helps when I’m really stressed—coming home to a puppy cuddle is just the best thing ever. It’s really great.”
It’s not just students who benefit from the dogs. Once the dogs have been sufficiently trained and are deemed to be suitable for their job, they are provided to disabled members of the community for free. According to Seidel, the dogs “graduate” from the program when they are about 10-to-12 months-old.
“For someone who is going to get the dog later on in life, I feel like it opens up doors for them,” said Low Kum. “Sometimes I think what happens is they become insecure about their disability or it kind of limits them, and having that dog gives them that extra confidence. Sometimes you can see it with other trainers, too…you’ll see that people tend to smile more when they look at you.”
One of the simplest ways for students to get involved with guide dogs is to join one of the clubs on campus, such as the Guelph Lions Club. According to Seidel, students don’t even need to be training a guide dog to join. “That’s one of the common misconceptions, I think, because a lot of people say, ‘How can I be a part of the club? How can I get a dog?’ But [the club] is actually just to support the program.”
Another function of the club is to simply raise awareness about guide dogs on campus, and to educate people on how to respectfully interact with the dogs.
“Some people aren’t very aware that there are boundaries, rules, and limitations around your service dog,” said Low Kum. “[Sometimes there will be] a crowd petting the dog, and because people think there’s a crowd they can come, too. And it’s just reminding people, like, ‘Hey, yes, you can pet him, but still ask first’…People just see puppy first before seeing working dog and that’s where the disconnect is.”
If students want to go one step further than joining the club and take care of a guide dog of their own, they don’t necessarily even need prior dog-training experience.
“Anyone can raise a guide dog puppy,” said Seidel. “We’ve had a raiser who’d never had a pet before. There’s lots of support from the organization, so we don’t want to exclude anyone who doesn’t have experience.”
However, Seidel mentions that there are often caps on dog guide training programs, so the programs have to be very selective with their criteria. But going through the application process to raise one’s own guide dog seems to be well worth the effort.
“Being a part of a dog guides training has been one of the best things I have done,” said Courtney Trauzzi, another dog guide volunteer. “Knowing that these dogs will be doing something so amazing and so important when they are done their training not only makes the training that much easier, but it also puts your mind at ease when giving them away.”
Indeed, Seidel says that bidding farewell to her dogs is one of the most difficult parts of her job, but also the most rewarding.
“It’s never going to be easy,” said Seidel. “Not going to lie, I will cry every single time. They’re my babies. For me, the point when I saw my first puppy graduate, and you get invited to the graduation ceremony, you get to meet the person, and just seeing the bond that the dog and the person already have, and seeing the change and hearing all the stories…it’s absolutely amazing.”