Auburn Teams Up with the Guide Dog Foundation

Many shelters have fostering programs in which you are allowed to raise a puppy and then you return it back. Lots of college students do this, but it leads to a heartbreaking challenge when the time comes; many dogs end up being adopted.

But not for students like Jennifer Lyons, head coordinator of the Guide Dog Foundation ‘puppy raisers’ of Auburn. The puppies they raise here could have potential careers as service or guide dogs.

“A lot of people ask why I do it because I’m going to have to give them up,” said Lyons, “but it’s great to know that I can help someone out.”

In 1946, following World War II, five community leaders founded a guide dog school in metropolitan New York to provide guide dogs at no charge for blind or visually impaired students, especially veterans who had returned from the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific.

After their 14-16-month bond with the ‘raisers’, the dogs move on to the next phase of training in Smithstown, NY where the Guide Dog Foundation facility is located.

Lyons is currently raising her third puppy, 3-month-old Labrador-Retriever cross Sylvia. She took over for Auburn DVM candidate and prior head coordinator of the ‘puppy raisers’ Samantha Warner. It was Warner who first interviewed Lyons during her application process to see if she was ‘up’ for the puppy raising program.

She “most certainly was,” having raised a puppy for Wildcat Service Dog Foundation during her undergrad years at the University of Kentucky.

“We go over how much time you’ll have to spend with the dog and what’s expected of you,” said Lyons. “We have a puppy manual to read through that goes into detail with training. It also gives advice for people who have never trained or raised a dog before.”

Warner said the training falls under three tiers: house manners (no begging or jumping on furniture), basic obedience (sit, stay, come), and socialization (confidence in public settings).

During the socialization training period, one of the most important things for the raiser is to encourage the public to never pet a working dog without permission.

“Until they are nine months old, they are allowed to be pet by the public,” said Lyons. “They just need to be sitting or lying down. They need to be used to different types of people. After 9 months we start weaning them off it. Depending on the time, we will have to say no to people who want to pet them and say we are working. It gets a lot more serious.”

Warner mentioned that, with the vet school being so familiar with these four-legged classmates, students at lectures are good at policing those who are unaware of the importance to avoid petting the dogs.

As the head coordinator for the Auburn volunteer group, Lyons interviews volunteer applicants, maintains contact with GDF trainers and holds meetings for the group at a different location every month in order to expose the dogs to new environments.

Serena, the second dog Lyons raised, is in training right now in Smithstown to become a guide dog. “I’m hoping I’ll be able to go see her graduation,” she said. “I miss her but it will be great to see her matched with someone that she will be helping for life.”

If the dogs are not fit to be guide dogs, they are sent to the GDF sister organization AmericasVetDogs, a program that trains service dogs for veterans or first responders with disabilities.

“There’s no real formula to it,” said Deana Izzo, a trainer for the Guide Dog Foundation. “We try to identify dogs who may be too much for our program before they go to New York. That way, the training staff will have a higher probability of focusing their attention on dogs that can be guide dogs.”

Izzo mentions there are times when a dog may have too much energy and can be sent to a detection school.

Certain dogs will also be put up for adoption. “The first dog I trained had some sensitivity issues,” Lyons said. “She was released and I decided to adopt her.”

Warner said that whenever a student notices their puppy is encountering an illness, they will call her first and she will let them know where to go from there. “Their temperaments are so much different than your typical pet; they can be much calmer than your average dog.”

Lyons said she takes Sylvia everywhere with her. “The only times she isn’t with me is when she’s in her crate during one of my labs or when I’m sleeping.”

However, there come certain times Lyons and the other raisers have to leave town without the puppies. This presents an opportunity for undergrad students to volunteer with a “puppy camp” for the dogs.

Reagan Kaniut ‘18, a sophomore in Rehab and Disability Studies, who has been involved with the program since last summer, said she’ll have a dog stay with her once a week or month.

“I want to train one of them so badly, but I’m going to wait until after school,” Kaniut said. “It’s great that you can incorporate them into your daily life.”

Lyons will be visiting Kaniut’s home for her interview. The camp volunteers go through the same application process as the puppy raisers.

After Sylvia’s 14-16 months with Lyons and the occasional puppy camp, it will be her turn to see if she is fit to be a guide dog. And like any proud parent, Lyons hopes to visit her graduation as well.

Since the puppy raisers program is so new in Auburn, there still aren’t any Guide Dog Foundation graduates in assisting the blind on the plains. However, there are dogs from programs like “Leader Dogs for the Blind” providing guidance and friendship to Auburn students in need.

Sophomore in Music Education and Performance Tripp Gulledge ’18, who is blind, has been with Dakota, a yellow Labrador-Retriever cross, since June 2015. Together they have been getting more and more comfortable with the curvy sidewalks around the Auburn campus.

Gulledge speaks of his first time experiencing the world with Dakota as “pretty crazy.” A former cane user, Gulledge just had to focus on what he noticed around him. But now Gulledge has to think about Dakota when it comes to the orientation of their environment.

“There’s a trust between Dakota and I,” Gulledge said. “I can’t assume he’s wrong when he does something I don’t want him to do. But sometimes he might turn one sidewalk too early, so I have to realize and rectify that.”

Gulledge loves having conversations with people about how these guide dogs work and the training they experience. The education he provides the public on guide dogs and their rights comes from a grateful perspective.

All of this great work is made possible through the puppy raising programs at Guide Dog Foundation and Leader Dogs for the Blind all across the country.

These dogs live a life full of work, hard work. Many times, just like most students, they have no idea what they are going to do after school is done. But they know they are going to benefit society one way or another.

Just like our future children, it all starts with the foundation these puppies learn at Auburn.