About Wildcat Service Dogs

The article I’m writing about today can be found at wildcatservicedogsuk.webs.com. The article is titled “About Us” and was written and published by the Wildcat Service Dog Team.

The article starts off saying that the Wildcat Service Dog organization is relatively new to the University. All Wildcat Service Dogs are trained by college students for up to two years. The trainers of Wildcat Service Dogs must attend weekly training sessions.The WSD (Wildcat Service Dogs) program was started in 2011 when Katie Skarvan got a service dog to train. She brought the dog to many classes and she received many questions pertaining to the dog. Another student named Jennifer Hamilton then received a training dog as well and the program took off from there. The service dogs are being trained to help individuals with disabilities accomplish everyday tasks. Service dogs help with many tasks: opening doors, turning off lights, retrieving dropped items, and many more. Puppy raisers at the university receive their dogs when they are 8-12 weeks old and keep them for close to two years. The trainers are responsible for teaching the puppies simple obedience commands such as sit, stay, and other commands. To become a WSD trainer there are many things one must do. Some of them include attending orientation meetings, classes for humans, training classes, as well as many more. For the students that aren’t ready to become a puppy trainer, they can become puppy sitters. The puppy sitters watch the dogs while the trainers are busy with labs that the dogs aren’t allowed in. The Wildcat Service Dogs are only used for the basic training and are then given to a much more advanced training program.

I enjoyed learning more about this organization. I had only known that one could become a puppy trainer, but I had no clue that one could become a puppy sitter. I really want to be involved in the puppy sitting. The article doesn’t specifically say what things will get you selected to become a trainer. What are the attributes or qualities do they look for? Does an individual wanting to become a puppy trainer have to have any prior experience with animals? To further my research I could look at the link provided in the article and find more information about service dogs in general. 


Link to Article