Photo courtesy of Future Leader Dogs at Oakland University
Leader Dogs for the Blind is an organization that pairs those suffering from visual impairments with dogs who have been specially trained to guide them. While many students want to take the opportunity to help train these dogs, it can be difficult to juggle college life, but one club on campus offers aid and guidance to their fellow leader dog trainers.
Mackenzie Nichols, the president of Future Leader Dogs at Oakland University, explains the services her club provides.
“Our program on campus is really built around advocacy for the blind and visually impaired communities, as well as making the puppy raising experience affordable and not as much of a time burden, because we are students first.”
When you are training a leader dog on campus, there are some off-limit areas you can’t take your dog to, such as the gym or certain classes. That is where the club’s campus buddy program comes in.
“Each puppy raiser is matched with a team, and we’ve had teams as small as three all the way up to 18 plus,” Nichols said. “This campus buddy team is specifically trained for that future leader dog in order to offer that time support during anything on campus where that puppy can’t be safe or isn’t welcomed.”
While the thought of raising and training a leader dog sounds like an expensive endeavor, the Future Leader Dogs Club ensures that the cost of raising a leader dog puppy is covered.
“Puppy raising at OU as a student is free,” Nichols said. “You’re not paying for the vet, you’re not paying for dog food, any of the training supplies, everything from the bone that he’s chewing on to the Kennel at home, it’s provided by our student org. We do a lot of fundraising in order to make that a possibility and more accessible to more students on campus.”
Nichols explains the changes she had to make to her schedule to accommodate her leader dogs.
“I just build in an extra 15 to 20 minutes wherever I’m going, just in case my puppy decides to go off on a little adventure,” Nichols said. “It takes us a little bit longer to go to the bathroom before and after, so it’s just to build in a little bit of a buffer.”
Nichols explains how training a leader dog has fixed her schedule and time management.
“They’ve held me to a consistent schedule,” Nichols said. “I used to be the kind of girl that would sleep in until 11am and then go to bed at two in the morning. Now I go to bed at 10pm and I’m up by six or seven in the morning, and honestly, it’s made me a lot more productive and way better at time management.”
I raised four puppies in the last five years. One got to walk at graduation for my undergrad with me. So, I had a big 80-pound golden retriever walks across the stage. He’s absolutely perfect. The only thing he was uncertain about was the bagpipes and the procession line as they went through. But he walked in with me, and he walked out with me.
For more information on the club and how to become a future leader dog trainer, contact the club at [email protected] or visit their GizzOrgs webpage.
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