Being a college student comes with a lot of responsibility, but that doesn’t mean you can’t add a dog into the mix. Rachel Glory, 23, graduated last fall from UCF with a degree in philosophy. Glory found UCF to be a welcoming campus for her dog Ventress, where she would take her for walks around campus regularly, she said.
“l would take her for walks around campus and she would get pet by everyone, ” Glory said.
Ventress, named after Glory’s favorite Star Wars character, is a three-and-a-half-year-old Alaskan husky. Glory bought Ventress when she was just an eight-week-old puppy from a lady who was breeding her to help pay for her daughter’s bills.
Taking care of a dog while studying and working two jobs can be challenging, but Glory made sure Ventress always gets the care she needs. She even takes the time to train her the basic commands twice daily, she said. One of the things that helped her cope with late study nights was the Wag app. The app offers a service where a person can come and walk your dog and give it water while you’re away.
“In live time it showed you where your dog is being walked, where it goes to the bathroom, it can send you videos and pictures of your dog. That was very helpful when I had to stay late nights in the library,” Glory said.
This is an example of how technology can be used to make life easier for student dog owners.
Glory is in the process of registering Ventress as an emotional support animal and plans to take her to hospitals to do charity work, she said.
“She’s such a good dog and I found that she’s so good with kids and animals and I thought this would be a good way of giving back. Its beneficial to my dog getting socialized and could help cheer someone up,” Glory said.
Glory did not run into any difficulty around campus and no one ever told her that she couldn’t take Ventress anywhere she went on campus. But she didn’t take her to class, she said.
“I liked how UCF is pet friendly, a beautiful campus for them to walk around and I really enjoyed that aspect. Even if I wanted to grab something to eat at Burger U or something I could just bring her to the patio there,” Glory said.
Sometimes Glory would take Ventress to study with her outside and Ventress would let her know if she was paying too much attention to her homework and not enough attention to her.
“She gets lots of love while I do my homework and studying. But if I’m on my laptop for too long she will come up and she will close my laptop with her paw,” Glory said.
