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| Saturday, May 26
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Teens get into dog-training role Horizon Academy students training service dogs |
A sea of yellow Labs spreads across the main hallway of Horizon Academy every day after school.
Some of the dogs sniff the walls and others lie peacefully. One or two excitedly jump up at the arrival of a student passerby.
They all, however, follow the commands of their teenage trainers.
For an hour every weekday, the START club — a program featuring seven students — trains Labradors to be service dogs, which guide sight-impaired persons or assist people with other handicaps.
The activity began two years ago, when Lea Ann Shearer, director of the non-profit organization Paws for Freedom, approached Horizon Academy — a private school in Roeland Park that helps learning disabled children — with the idea. School administrators liked the project and immediately signed her on.
The teenagers who joined the club are currently training seven dogs, two of which will meet their new owners in the fall.
“These students try very hard and do great,” Shearer said. “They realize it’s a job, not just playing with the dogs. Their commitment and patience are just great.”
In the hallway Tuesday afternoon the trainers were finishing up their last session with the canines before summer vacation.
The students rolled up and down the corridor in wheelchairs to get the dogs accustomed to walking with a physically handicapped owner.
In the past two semesters the students have taught the dogs to retrieve items, open and close doors, and use light switches. They also try to accommodate the dogs to different environments — a quiet library or a noisy shopping center. They turn on vacuum cleaners and make the dogs walk on plastic bags.
“A dog’s brain is like a blank book, and we need to fill it with positive, yet different, experiences so he will know what to do once he is given away,” Shearer said.
She tries to show her trainers the importance of their roles by bringing in guide-dog users and police officers as guest speakers.
The average wait list for a service dog is three to five years, Shearer said. Student trainers are helping cut the list in half because they are enabling her to double the number of dogs she trains for people in need.
She believes the benefits are a two-way street.
“I really think training the dogs increases the students’ self-esteem and gives them future employment skills,” Shearer said. “Some of them would do well as a veterinarian technician or any job in the dog service industry.”
Alli Pitkin, a sophomore, is one of the students interested in making a career in the dog world.
She has been in the START club for two years and was grooming her yellow Lab Astro before he graduates from the “dog academy” in October.
She spent a few minutes petting him and saying goodbye before he was loaded into the van to return to Shearer’s home in Tonganoxie, Kan.
“I’m excited and sad to see Astro graduate next (school) year,” said Pitkin, of Overland Park. “I’m so happy when he does something right. He’s a good dog — very calm.”
Down the hallway several students were finishing up their wheelchair training.
The end of class was difficult for Brian Turissini, an eighth-grader who sat on the floor watching his fellow trainers zoom by.
Next year, the 14-year-old will head to a different high school, leaving his new best friend, Bombay, behind.
“The main thing I’m going to miss about this school (Horizon Academy) is Bombay,” said Turissini, of Leawood, as he affectionately wrestled with the energetic black Lab. “She reminds me a lot of me, and I felt like I could calm her down. She was very, very hyper and passive resistant when she first began this process, but she has improved a lot.”
Many of the other students did not have sad goodbyes. They are going to participate in weekly field trips this summer to introduce the dogs to the outside world of ice cream stores and outdoor malls.
They will also be receiving a new batch of Labrador puppies this summer, to begin training once school resumes.
Their enthusiasm and helpfulness impress Shearer and their other instructor, Kim Downing, who was tentative about working with adolescents.
“Sometimes there are maturity issues, which you get with any teenager — giggling and excessive talking,” Downing said. “But we work through it. Some of these kids do have potential to do something with dogs as a career one day.”Labels: career training |
posted by ^%&^
@ 7:43 PM
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