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The Latest Group of Golden Retriever Puppies

The latest group of Golden Retriever puppies to arrive on the campus of Dorothy Thomas School is the “I” Litter. All the pups were given names that begin with the letter I. The pups names are Indy and Iris. These puppies joined the Golden Retriever “G” and "H" dogs . The "G" dogs are named Gio, and Gwynn and the "H" dogs are Harris, Higgins, Hogan, Hope, Hunter and Hutch.

These puppies will undergo training by students at Dorothy Thomas, under the constant scrutiny of Jennifer Wise, Kids and Canines Program Director and Mary Maas, Assistant Program Director.

The training for the puppies continues until they are approximately two years old. Then the dogs graduate as certified assistance dogs and become available for placement.

General Information About Our Dogs

Our program is located on the campus of Dorothy Thomas School, is a one of a kind program.

At-risk teens are learning to train service dogs to assist individuals with disabilities.

Our program is designed to teach these students job readiness skills necessary to become productive citizens.

The students start the training by teaching the dogs the basics such as sit, watch, down and shake.  The students learn how to talk to their puppies.  They have to use their “silly puppy voices” in order to keep the puppies interested in what they are trying to teach them.

The dogs stay on their leashes most of the time during their beginning training.  However, the students are learning how not to use the leash to stop the dog because the dog will learn to rely on the pull of the leash.  Instead, the kids have to use the sound of their voice to get the dogs to do what they want them to do.  Many of the future dog owners are not able to pull on a leash.

The dogs also learn kisses and better hurry, which is the command that trains the dogs to “do their business” as quickly as possible.

These dogs are very smart and seem to have good comprehension of their first commands, as well as picking up things such as bottles and keys and bringing them back to their trainers.

The dogs are disciplined by positive reinforcement.  This means that the dogs are praised and rewarded when they do something right and ignored when they do something wrong.

Each dog has its own individual personality just like a person. 

The dogs like to play just like all puppies do.  However, their trainers have to train them, so they can’t “play” very much.  This is where a little reverse psychology comes in the trainers make the task that the dogs have to know fun and entertaining.  This task then seems like a game to the dogs; therefore, they are able to keep their attention on what they need to do without even realizing that they are working.

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