Not many students start attending college at 4 months old but there’s one student at UCF who is an exception; welcoming each school day with a wagging tail and wet velvet nose.
Her name is Robin, a four month old Labrador and Golden retriever mix service puppy in training.
Robin is a part of the program, Canine Companions for Independence, a non-profit with headquarters in California which provides trained assistant dogs for people living with disabilities.
CCI begins training and socializing their perspective service dogs at a young age through puppy-raising volunteer programs until they’re ready to begin their specific task training.
Robin is the first Canine Companion puppy-in-training to be raised and trained within UCF housing by her puppy raiser, Morgan Bell, a sophomore statistics and financing double major.
Bell, who has had no previous experience training dogs prior to joining the program, became interested in her first year upon receiving an email from housing inquiring about puppy raising.
“I applied in March 2015 and was officially approved as a puppy raiser in the middle of May,” Bell said. “In the meantime I had a phone interview and I attended a couple of obedience classes to learn how to begin puppy training.”
In July of 2015, Bell was matched with 8-week-old Robin and began teaching her basic commands which includes recognizing her name, going to her kennel, waiting at door thresholds before entering, and ‘speaking’ on command.
“This is useful when the handler falls and can’t get up or is stuck somewhere. It’s more efficient for the dog to bark for help as opposed to the handler having to scream,” Bell informed.
Although Bell is Robin’s handler at the moment, part of CCI’s puppy-raising program is that the puppy will eventually leave the care of the handler in order to begin six to nine months of advanced service dog training before being matched with her final recipient.
“The hardest part of the program will be when Robin’s training is complete. I’ll have her for 16-18 months until she goes into advance training and will then be paired up with a person with a disability,” Bell said.
“I realize she will do amazing things so it’ll be worth it,” Bell said.
Robin attends her obedience classes every Saturday, accompanies Bell to all her classes, short errands, and everyday college excursions throughout UCF’s campus. When Bell does homework in her room, Robin takes advantage of the opportunity to nap at her feet.
Although she is being taught a lot of new life skills by Bell, Bell is likewise being taught new things from raising Robin over the past few months.
“She is teaching me quite a bit about patience and I’ve learned to be quite adaptable,” Bell said.
Bell has also been inspired to begin a new puppy program on UCF campus for people willing to raise or babysit certain service puppies-in-training called STEP@UCF, which stands for Service Dog Training and Education Program.
The first interest meeting will be held Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Burnett Honors College Reading Room. Any students interested in learning more about what this program has to offer or how to qualify to be a puppy raiser are urged to attend.
Robin will be advancing with her training around November of next year. Until then, she can be found happily trotting by Bell’s side, sleeping under chairs during class lectures, or smiling into camera’s being directed toward her.
