Samantha Warner, a third-year vet student, looked down at Serena and quietly commanded her to lie down. Serena, wearing her banana-colored vest, immediately obeyed and happily lowered herself to the floor.
Serena is a golden retriever and the eighth dog Warner has raised for the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind.
In a few months Warner will give Serena back to the Guide Dog Foundation, where Serena will begin the next part of her journey in becoming an assistance dog.
Warner said trainers still receive updates on their dogs after they give them up and can even attend their graduations.
“Letting go of the dogs is definitely the hardest part about this program, but that day is also the most exciting to me,” Warner said. “My first dog was definitely the hardest to give up, but it is such an accomplishment when you do.”
Olivia Sicard, freshman in business, is currently raising her first assistance dog.
“I am going to be devastated when I have to give him up,” Sicard said. “I did a lot of fostering back home so I am kind of used to it, but I have never had a dog for this long. You just have to remember that the dog is going to an amazing cause, they are going to be helping someone. It is what they are bred for, and it is the dog’s passion.”
Jennifer Lyons, first-year vet student and a puppy raiser in Auburn, said her favorite part about raising an assistance dog was the end goal of knowing she is going to be helping someone.
“Just impacting someone’s life in the way that raising an assistance dog will do is so amazing for me,” Lyons said. “That is why I like to do it.”
Warner first started raising assistance dogs during her time completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia.
“There is a group of about 100 puppies there,” Warner said. “During my first year, I saw someone else raising a puppy, and I just stopped her and asked her about it. Growing up, my grandma’s neighbors also raised service dogs, but my main interest in it came from my time at University of Georgia.”
Warner glanced down at Serena, checking to make sure she was behaving properly.
“It is not necessarily hard to do this,” Warner said. “It is more time consuming. Yes, you are starting out with a puppy and teaching them to be well-behaved as they go along, but it is more of a time commitment. It is not something where you have to have dog training experience or anything like that. The Guide Dog Foundation teaches you everything you need to know and is with you every step of the way. Each dog is also so different, you could train multiple dogs and each experience be different. It never gets boring.”
For more information about the Guide Dog Foundation visit www.Guidedog.org.
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