Rudder makes friends at Colony Middle School

You're visiting a middle school to speak with a teacher. All of a sudden you see a wild, dirty dog running rambunctiously throughout the hallways, growling and snarling at every student passing by. Is this what they meant by "service dog" when it was announced there would be one at school?

Many people may think that having a dog at school is simply not right. Naomi Gravdal assures us that all service dogs in training and actual service dogs are very specially selected. They are also severely trained. Naomi has seen only four Alaskan dogs begin service dogs training. The first dog to "graduate" training will be in the spring of 2002.

People who are around a service dog in training should act usual and always keep in mind that the dog is actually working. To signify this, trainers "dress" the dog with a cape. Service dogs are trained to retrieve items, open and close doors or other objects, turn switches on and off and pull items.

Some people may be led to believe that because of their training description, service dogs and Seeing-Eye dogs are the same thing. This is a common error. After a couple of months with a service dog in training, Rudder, Mrs. Jill Warner's seventh grade at Colony Middle School could clearly define the difference.

"You must think of the service dogs not as 'service dogs,' but as 'mobility dogs.' Seeing-Eye dogs have to make life and death decisions for its owner, such as crossing the street at the right time, when service dogs only help the owners with their mobility impairments, such as giving a cashier an owner's wallet, or turning on or off a light switch," said Gravdal.

How are service dogs trained to be so smart? After a few months, or arriving upon completion of training, service dogs learn simple commands such as "come" and "sit." These are probably the same simple commands you use with your dog at home, but those aren't all the commands they learn. They also learn more challenging commands such as "give," "leave it," "go in," and "shake."

The next time you hear of a dog placed in a school, perhaps you should consider that some dogs just sleep all day and do what they are told. Colony Middle is the first school to attempt training a service dog. Although this will be his only year with this group of students, Rudder is doing very well.

Or, according to Jill Warner, "So far, so good!"