Six yellow labs prodded across IU’s campus with their handlers at the beginning of this semester. They are endearingly known as the “Snoopy” litter, and as of February, they were ICAN at IU’s newest service dogs in training.
ICAN at IU, a club which helps train service dogs for people with disabilities, has never before seen so many of the same litter on campus at the same time, co-furlough coordinator Marisa Maines said.
The dogs, who are around ten months old now, will continue in training with ICAN until they are two years old, club president Hannah Walker said. At that point, the dogs will graduate and be assigned to someone with a disability. But the furloughers, students who train the dogs, do not yet know what kind of disability their dog will be serving.
“Even now they’re teaching her cues that are specific to certain skills that she might do when she graduates,” Walker said of her dog Tommie. “But they don’t determine what her graduation position will be until she’s a little bit closer to two.”
ICAN president Hannah Walker and co-furlough coordinator Marisa Maines talk about a typical ICAN dog’s journey to become a service dog and what it’s like to be an ICAN furlougher.
Walker said she had some ideas for what Tommie could be, but nothing definite.
“She’s kind of just a rock star across the board,” she said. “Of course she’s got her issues because she’s young, but they always do. That’s part of the training is, you get to work on them and troubleshoot and do what’s best for the dog, which is cool.”
ICAN dogs can help with therapy, disrupt repetitive behaviors in kids with autism, help with PTSD in veterans, assist with mobility and more, Maines said.
Maines said inmates at an Indianapolis prison also help train the dogs. The dogs get to work in a closed environment, and the training helps inmates develop responsibilities and skills for when they get out.
“A lot of their lives have changed a lot because of ICAN,” Maines said. “I know a lot of them talk about how this is their light in a dark place and it’s their purpose.”
Before they turn two, the dogs bounce between being trained in the prison and being trained on IU’s campus, Maines said. Training at IU helps the dogs get used to public environments.
“They’ll practice kind of what they already know but in a brand new environment because prison is a lot different than IU,” she said. “We have lots of exciting smells and sounds and all of that here.”
ICAN co-furlough coordinator Marisa Maines speaks on what people should and shouldn’t do when they see a service dog.
Walker said it’s been particularly interesting to train the six of eight siblings in the “Snoopy” litter at the same time. She talked to other furloughers, and they found that some of their dogs had the same behaviors and qualities. The Snoopy siblings had a tendency to get carsick, but they all grew out of it on the same day, when their inner ears were fully developed.
“It’s kind of cool to draw those comparisons,” Walker said.
Tommie, like her other siblings, had to leave campus in February to continue her training. While she gets emotionally attached, Walker said it helps to remind herself that the dogs are serving a greater purpose.
“It’s also just that sense of accomplishment and pride when your dog goes on to graduate and help someone in need,” she said. “It really usurps any other attachment you have.”
