Service dogs trained in Puppy Kindergarten at Duke for people with disabilities

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) — Duke University is ranked as one of the nation’s top schools for people and apparently also puppies. There’s a unique course taking place right now on campus. It’s called Puppy Kindergarten.

Dogs will begin going through rigorous training from a very young age to eventually help individuals with disabilities.

Duke University partners with the nonprofit Canine Companions and it was the first on-campus center of its kind in the United States.

Certified service dogs can open doors, turn off lights, and retrieve dropped items. If their owner is deaf, the service dogs can alert them to doorbells or smoke alarms.

12-week ago Abel and 14-week-old Yale are going through the class now at Duke. There is a class principal. The head honcho in charge of guiding the puppies and displaying model behavior is Neutron.

Playtime and socialization are part of the fun. Staff will also run through a few cognitive games and look at a puppy’s ability to solve problems.

For instance, in one exercise, staff says puppies that make consistent eye contact are more likely to graduate as service dogs.

“All the games we play with the puppies are the same games that psychologists used to study children before they can talk,” said Duke Puppy Kindergarten Director Vanessa Woods.

The is process is a huge investment in time, as well as money. The dogs spend about two years in the program and each one receives about $50,000 in training.

Only half of the dogs that go through the process graduate to become a certified service dog.

For those that do, it makes a huge difference.

“Storm has absolutely been life-changing for me,” said Raleigh resident Debra Johnson. “It’s been an amazing three years.”

Johnson has a rare genetic disease. Johnson, a Rhodes scholar, was only the 98th person in the country to receive the diagnosis and start treatment.

“Which made having a brain disease even harder when it took away my career,” she said. “I loved what I did. I was the president of a manufacturing company.”

Johnson and her husband donated to the program before she ultimately became a recipient.

She spent three years on a waiting list and now has Storm by her side.

The service dog is there for her physically and emotionally.

“He definitely helps me not feel lonely. He’s always there,” said Johnson. “He keeps me company. he gets me moving instead of…it’s really easy when you’re disabled to just stay in one place.”

He additionally helps bridge a gap in the community.

“It makes people less nervous about a person in a wheelchair. There’s a lot of people that are uncomfortable with people in wheelchairs. They don’t know how to interact, react, spend time with somebody in a wheelchair, and so he’s a good bridge that that we can talk,” said Johnson.

Storm was provided to Johnson free of charge through the nonprofit.

She continues to support the cause knowing these dogs provide invaluable service.

“There’s no technology that can do what these dogs do when they grow older and when they’re trained . . . and then give you a hug at the end of the day,” said Woods. “These dogs are extremely special.”

Woods and Puppy Kindergarten Co-Founder Brian Hare just released a book. It goes into further detail about the program and also provides an at-home training schedule for people, who might want to teach their own puppies to help with tasks.