It’s yet another day of classes. You walk into your lecture hall with slumped shoulders, expecting to be bored, exhausted or surprised by yet another pop quiz.
What you’re not expecting to see is a Labrador retriever tucked neatly under a desk, staring right at you, courtesy of UTD SIT.
UTD SIT, which stands for Service Dogs in Training, is a college branch of Canine Companions and provides students with the opportunity to raise and train puppies who will go on to assist those with disabilities or medical needs. The club is open to students of any major with any level of experience interacting with dogs. Emma Unger, co-president of the club and senior in biochemistry, said the club’s mission is simple: to raise service dogs that’ll improve others’ quality of life.
“UTD SIT [is] a very open and welcoming environment, [people] have really found a home there, which I really love,” Unger said. “I think we do a lot of work to surround ourselves with the mission of providing independence for those that our service dogs will go to.”
From Canine Companions’ breeding program located in Santa Rosa, California puppies are moved to regional centers, after which they are shipped to their raisers. After 18 months of raising, the dogs celebrate their graduations at UTD — as one dog named Nero had Feb. 6 — and afterwards return to Canine Companions, where they will complete professional training and be matched with a handler, who they will provide a service to. The process of matching a dog to a handler is a careful balance of the dog’s skills and the handler’s needs, according to Unger.
“The professional training takes six months and that’s when they really look at what the dog is good at and what the dog likes doing,” Unger said. “They have a lot of different work they can do [from] wheelchair work, PTSD work and recently as well … identifying medical alert dogs for diabetes.”
Within the club, members have a plethora of choices in how they want to contribute. Some choose to be raisers, where they live with the dog and aid in its grooming and training. For those with packed schedules, they have an option to be a sitter, which takes less of a time commitment and allows them to bring the dog around campus and to classes for a certain period of time. Although the decision lies in the hands of club members, Lily Evertse, co-president of the club and computer engineering senior, said members changing their minds is a regular occurrence.
“You get to control your contribution to the club,” Evertse said. “We have people breaking from just coming to our meetings, playing with our dogs to raising full time.”
The dogs are typically Labrador retrievers, chosen for their gentle nature, yet each dog has a unique story and traits they embody and eventually will share with their handler. But just as much as the raiser shapes the dog, the dog shapes the raiser. For Unger, who is raising a dog named Jolley, her personal story is just that.
“I think before raising, I was a puppy sitter for a long time because I didn’t have the schedule space to raise and a lot of what I was doing before was training based,” Unger said. “I think to honestly let them in your life as just a dog that you also get to love even though you are going to give [them] up eventually was something different.”
For Evertse, who has been raising since her sophomore year of high school in similar programs for dogs, the experience has changed her career trajectory.
“It actually very much inspired me to go into biomedical engineering because I would hear testimonies of people [who] were specifically visually impaired,” Evertse said. “I think it resonated with me a lot because it is really giving something to someone that would really change their life, and it was really meaningful to see them gain their independence back.”
Eighteen months for a dog entails a lot of growth and learning so they can eventually support the life of their handler. It’s not a short amount of time for the raisers, either. Emotions run high when it’s time to return the dogs back to Canine Companions.
“Of course, it will [be] hard, I will miss her,” Unger said, referring to Jolley’s eventual departure. “First of all, going into the work with the mindset and knowledge that you are doing this for someone else and not doing this for yourself really helps, because Jolley is not my pet. She is really for a larger purpose, and I think of myself as a small step in their journey.”
Training involves rewarding a dog with treats, verbal or physical praise or a clicker as it learns. But one of the most important skills needed to train successfully is positivity, Evertse said.
“We always leave every training session on a positive note,” Evertse said. “It’s very important that our dogs love working, it’s not like us where we go to the office and process it like work. For a dog, it’s supposed to be something fun, and they enjoy it.”
The dogs’ impact extends beyond the club, too, to the way classroom environments transform in the presence of a furry, four-legged friend.
“Teachers would definitely tell me that whenever the dogs were in the room, students were a lot more calm and more focused,” Evertse said. “They made it a productive learning environment for the dog and themselves.”
The club focuses on inclusivity as well, looking to appeal to those who may feel nervous around dogs. Evertse said the opportunities in the club are limitless, and she finds that by getting involved in the club, hesitation wears off and love for the dogs kicks in.
“They could participate on our board, or they can be in any of our committees [like] our events committee and help us throw a puppy party,” Evertse said. “[Members] walk away feeling a little more uplifted, and also walk away feeling a little more responsible.”
For Evertse and Unger, both found a purpose in the club during their four years at UTD by seeking officer roles increasing membership and increasing the number of dogs that could be raised. Through it all, their friendship, too, blossomed within the club.
And of course, their relationships with the dogs can’t be understated either.
“Jolley gets me out of bed earlier on the weekends than I would by myself, really, truly she helps my life,” Unger said.
Those interested in joining the club can follow the club’s Instagram and find out more information using the linked Linktree. The club typically meets twice a month, including a general member meeting and a social. Their next social is scheduled for Feb. 25 from 7 to 8 p.m.
“I think it helps to feel part of something bigger than yourself, honestly,” Unger said. “I think the community of people that we have built has been really powerful. A lot of people come for the dogs, but a lot of people also come for the other people they see at the meetings, and I think that is really important.”
