Service Dog in Training

Service Dog in Training Paws the way to her Future

By Jordan Stutts

            Gabriela De Gracia fixes her book bag on her shoulder while Charlotte stands up and patiently waits. The two head out of the classroom and De Gracia holds the door open as Charlotte walks through. Naturally, the two walk side-by-side towards their next class together. The difference between the two, besides De Gracia's dark, curly hair and Charlotte's white-blondish fluffy coat, is that Charlotte's education takes place on the walk to where they are going.

            Charlotte is not the average student at UNC Charlotte, but a student of sorts nonetheless. She is a 14-month old Golden Retriever with innocent, gentle eyes and a friendly disposition. She is not earning a degree with her time at UNC Charlotte, but the skills she learns on campus will help make a dramatic difference in the life of a disabled person.

            "We really wanted a pet but my parents would not do that, they said 'we just can't commit to 10 years,'" comments De Gracia on her decision to become a service dog trainer. "So I said, 'why don't we get a service dog?'" De Gracia, who is in her second year at UNC Charlotte (though with enough credit hours to be considered a junior), is a business major focusing on marketing and management and has always taken a keen interest in non-profit organizations.

            "College campuses are great places to socialize and train service animals," said Jo Ann Fernald, the Director of the Office of Disability Services at UNC Charlotte. "There are lots of people, lots of activity and yet you're fairly safe around here."

            University Policy 704 regarding animals on campus defines a service animal in training as "an animal in training to become a Service Animal when the animal is accompanied by a person who is training the Service Animal and the animal wears a collar and leash, harness, or cape that identifies the animal as a Service Animal in Training." This fits Charlotte's purpose to a T.

            Charlotte is the second service dog De Gracia has trained. You may have seen De Gracia walking, or being guided, by a 92-pound Labrador named Baity last year. Although Baity lived with De Gracia for a year, she never actually owned the dog. Both Baity and Charlotte belonged to Southeastern Guide Dogs, which is based in Palmetto, Florida. This is a nonprofit service dog training program that 'breeds and raises puppies, train guide dogs, and pair them with visually impaired adults' as mentioned in their information handout. De Gracia and her family applied to the program in October of 2010.

            De Gracia will train Charlotte for about a year, socializing her in active environments, teaching her commands and keeping her calm through distractions. On top of Charlotte's training while walking around UNC Charlotte's campus, De Gracia is also a member of a puppy group set up for members of Southeastern Guide Dogs in the Charlotte area. The 16-person group, known as 'Puppy-Raisers,' meets monthly in different places around Charlotte to go over different obedience training and activities. "That's our job is to get them familiar," says De Gracia. The dogs do not necessarily have to enjoy every environment they are in but have to know how to be 'familiar' with as many different situations as possible.

            The training Charlotte receives is critical because, according to De Gracia, only 40 percent of service dogs in training will make it as Seeing Eye dogs. "It's neat when your dog makes it  because so many of them don't," she says.

            A dog may not be a good fit as a Seeing Eye dog due to temperament or other factors. Fernald explains that a good service dog is "an animal that is very laid back. One that is not easily distracted or disturbed by noise, chaos, activity…or bees." She gives an example of how one service dog in training would 'go crazy' and pull away every time a bee buzzed around. If a dog does not make it as a Seeing Eye dog, he can be used by other programs in service for the deaf, people with epilepsy, children with autism or people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

            There are not many service dogs or service-dogs-in-training at UNC Charlotte. So protocol to allow De Gracia to make these animals a part of our community was not firmly in place when she arrived. North Carolina laws allow service animals, and those in training, in most public places so it was just a matter of obtaining UNC Charlotte's approval of Charlotte's presence. De Gracia first went to Fernald, who then sent an email to all of her professors stating this was a service-dog-in-training and she would not cause any disruption. The responsibility of maintaining Charlotte falls on De Gracia's shoulders. "If you're going to have a service animal on campus, we want to make sure it has a tag, they're registered and they have their inoculations," explains Fernald on UNC Charlotte's requirements for service dogs and service-dogs-in-training.

            De Gracia has never had any problem with a professor or student being displeased with Charlotte's seat in the classroom. The only foreseeable problems that could arise are a student with allergies or an extreme fear of dogs. On cue of allergies, Charlotte stands up and shakes off a rainfall of blonde hair, De Gracia laughs and says, "and Golden Retreivers shed twice a year and unfortunately now was that time for Charlotte." She goes on to say that if there are problems, she would simply move herself and her dog to the farthest point away from that student as possible. She also says "I would reassure them this is a service dog; they're some of the most well-behaved, nicest dogs."

            In fact, the only problem De Gracia has ever faced while training service dogs on campus has been people being overly friendly with Charlotte. Students do not realize that these are working dogs and while they are working they should not be distracted. "Whenever they have their coats on they are a working dog. When the coats are off they are a normal puppy that can play."

            During Charlotte's year with De Gracia, she will learn a variety of commands that will prepare her for the next level of service training. The commands she will be taught include: sit, stay, lie down (for long periods of time), find doors, cars and elevators, right about (used for turning around and always to the right), and switch (positioning herself on the correct side of an opening door). "We have a set schedule and the first one is sit, which can be taught in only one to two days," comments De Gracia.

            After the year is up, Charlotte and all of the other service-dogs-in-training for Southeastern Guide Dogs will return to Florida for a reunion and a graduation-type ceremony. This is where the next part of the training will begin for Charlotte. Once she returns to Florida she will go through a six-to-nine month evaluation and more extensive training, preparing her for the ultimate goal of providing independence and confidence to a disabled person in the real world.

            This reunion is also the gut-wrenching part of the process for De Gracia and her family. "What was hard about it was watching every puppy raiser go up and give their dog and hand over their collar and leash, balling their eyes out," said De Gracia about returning Baity last March. This is possibly the last time she and Charlotte will be together, but knowing that Charlotte will make such a profound difference in someone's life is what givers her comfort.

            When asked how service dogs can be beneficial to the community, De Gracia replied, "I don't have to think twice about it. It's really neat to hear parents explain (to their children) 'oh that's a service dog, they're helping another person.' I always enjoy it when I see people educating others about service dogs; it's just a neat thing."

            In March of 2013, when De Gracia takes Charlotte on her final walk across the stage in Florida, she will know her dog was educated in a perfectly fitting environment. Charlotte will continue with what she learned while at UNC Charlotte and hopefully will stake her claim in the life where she is needed most.

END

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Getting to know Conor Dugan

Getting to know Conor Dugan

            The voice of 26,000 casually walks into the student's apartment on a late Sunday evening. He's offered a beer and without hesitation he says "Yeah sure! Any beer is a good beer."

            

      Holding the frosty Pabst Blue Ribbon, he plops down into an old and faded, green patterned recliner only fit for a college apartment full of unmatched and past prime decorations. His untucked, plaid buttoned shirt, blue jeans and sneakers gives no insight into this guy's role on campus.

            

     Dark red hair with a little bit of stubble colored on his face completes his portrait of an everyday student. It is a good thing he can play the part of chameleon because Conor Dugan, Student Body President of UNC Charlotte, has the extraordinary task of representing every group found on campus.

            

     Matching him with any particular group at UNC Charlotte would be impossible. He has the ambiguous look of belonging everywhere and the confidence of making a friend out of anyone.

            

     If the descriptions and accolades from those who know him best hold true, it is a sheer stroke of luck that students have the option to call the New Jersey native 'Mr. President' (though he would prefer you didn't). Spencer Boone, the Secretary for Student Affairs, remarked that "he's (Dugan) very humble." Jonathan Mathews, Dugan's roommate and one of his best friends through college, said "he's a dude you can sit down and have a real, man-to-man, heart-to-heart with."

            

     Dugan's first goal was to attend NYU for photography but when his family moved  to Wilmington, N.C. from N.J. when he was 15, the out-of-state tuition for the prestigious school sky-rocketed.

            

     So he looked in state.

            

      He was still drawn to the big city atmosphere and the only other university he applied to in high school was UNC Charlotte.

            

     As a freshman, Dugan arrived on campus with plans of majoring in business. Those plans have now shifted to a double major in International Studies and Latin American Studies with a minor in Spanish.

            

     Dugan recalls walking to class one day as a freshman and thinking, "'What would success look like to me in a perfect world?' And I remember thinking, what would it take to become student body president of the school? It felt so above me, like a pipe dream."

            

     The first programs he chose to become involved with during his first year on campus was Emerging Leaders and Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity.

            

     "It was one of the first times where everything wasn't just laid out in front of you," he said.

            

     Dugan would later become inactive from Alpha Sigma Phi because of his excessive time commitments to various student organizations.

            

     In his sophomore year he became involved with the Student Government Association (SGA) by being elected to a seat in the Student Senate.

            

     When a fraternity brother informed Dugan he was stepping down from the Ways and Means committee, which oversees student activity fees, he saw this as an opportunity to run for a leadership position on campus.

            

     "Opportunities will present themselves that I could make a step in one direction or the other with something I'm working on," he says.

            

     A study abroad trip that summer that ended up falling through left him without the time to rerun for Student Senate his junior year but he still served on the Ways and Means committee. Midway through the year, the chair of his committee stepped down, so Dugan answered the call. He was elected the leader and took the reins for the remainder of the year.

            

     It was during his time, as the Ways and Means Committee Chairperson, that various leaders on campus began nudging him in the direction of running for Student Body President his senior year.

            

     Dugan made the decision to run for office in fall of 2011 but kept his ambition low key until the mandatory announcement date in March of 2012. In the meantime, he started organizing his campaign.

            

     He hired Andrew Kenny as his campaign manager and together, they spent "all day every day trying to improve" his chances of winning the spring election.

            

     Dugan selected Loren Fouts for his running mate. He was able to work with Fouts during their time as Student Senators  and knew she had a terrific "track record" as far as work ethic and involvement in different programs on campus.

            

     With his announcement for the candidacy in March and his strategy in place, Dugan set out to make his name a common sound around the campus. His opposition was Stephen Belle Isle.

            

     "I got to speak at a lot of organization's meetings," Dugan said. "I figured out their times and scheduled a calendar for the three weeks (campaign period) where I would pretty much every day go and speak to two or three organizations."

            

     This differed from Belle Isle's approach of speaking one-on-one with different members of campus.

            

     After the votes were counted, Dugan was declared the winner of the Student Body President for 2012-2013.

            

     He immediately went to work and met with the former Student Body President, David Craven, to get a tutorial on how to effectively do his new job. He introduced himself to the faculty and administration.

            

     "One of the first things he said in the first meeting is, "We have a year but it's not as long as it sounds," noted Boone on Dugan's jumpstart to his term.

            

     Over this past summer Dugan took a month hiatus from his position to study abroad with his girlfriend of two years, Jordan Hoogenhout. They traveled to Lima, Peru where they immersed themselves in the culture; Dugan took two classes spoken entirely in Spanish.

            

     Dugan went right back to work when he returned. He began finalizing his cabinet for this year and singling out four or five main issues he hopes will have an impact during his time in office.

            

     Some of these include increasing the feel of campus community in lieu of football in the fall of 2013 and releasing the anticipated 49er mobile app, which will allow users to see bus routes, cafeteria menus and event schedules on campus.

            

     Jeff Caruso, a junior at UNC Charlotte and an avid 49ers athletics fan, has high hopes for Dugan's impact on campus.

            

     "I've been to a few games, traveled to a few road games and it's been good to see everyone get behind [UNC Charlotte] this year. I think the biggest thing [for Dugan] to do is to get behind the students. It can be really huge for next year," said Caruso.

            

     He realizes his power to effect change at UNC Charlotte during his term and vocalizes with the students "taking all things into consideration and apply that to where we're going," said Dugan.

            

     "There is no point in achieving success if I'm going to do a bad job at it, you know?"

            

     Through his busy schedule and countless meetings, he wants to remain the student on campus that can fit in anywhere. The desire to befriend anyone and relate to people's grievances about school is what makes Dugan "right for the job" as Boone boasted.

            

     His ability to connect with all walks of campus life is the exact persona one would imagine as a representative of the student voice.

            

     With all of his involvement, those who come into contact with Dugan can't help but catch his desire to help make UNC Charlotte a better community.

           

     "Him being busy makes me stay busy," admitted Mathews.

            

     Dugan's legacy as Student Body President has yet to be defined. If he succeeds at the tasks he has set for himself while in office as much as he succeeded at the tasks that landed him in office then he will have "accomplished what (he) came here for. You come to school to become the person you are the rest of your life."