BY GAVIN SMITH
Junior Natalie Popowics walks down the halls like any other normal day, when suddenly she spots something unusual out of the corner of her eye. Her attention instantly reverts to a golden retriever puppy which she’s allergic to, wearing a red vest and plodding down the halls with the flow of everyone else. Questions race through her mind, but one stands out more than the rest: “CAN I PET IT?!”
“Yes, you can pet him; it’s actually encouraged,” says junior Lizzy Geary, the temporary owner and trainer of Tiago, the golden retriever puppy who will one day become a service dog.
PHOTO BY GEARY.
Geary, who dog sits and works with horses in her free time, decided she wanted a more personal experience with animals. One day while browsing the web, Geary came across a service dog organization called 4 Paws for Ability.
After a thorough application process to assure Geary was suitable to train a service dog, she received Tiago, who she will train for six months before giving him back to 4 Paws for Ability to be further trained and then placed with a child or veteran.
According to 4 Paws for Ability’s website, their main goal is to “enrich the lives of children with disabilities by the training and placement of quality, task trained service dogs.”
4 Paws trains and places service dogs with children who have various disabilities such as deafness, autism, mobility issues, being seizure-prone, and diabetes. 4 Paws even places service dogs with veterans who suffer from PTSD.
As a service dog trainer, Geary’s main goal is to immerse Tiago in a public environment so he knows how to properly behave at a school.
Geary says the training has been fairly easy because Tiago behaves well in class. She continued to say, “The instances Tiago has distracted the class only by teachers wanting to play with him like Mrs. Leatherwood who had him run and play around the classroom for twenty minutes.” said Geary.
“Everyone loves Tiago,” says Natalie Popowics. “I just wash my hands afterwards; I’m not going to let an allergy stop me from petting an extremely cute puppy.”
Deanna Douglas • Jun 6, 2015 at 12:39 pm
We have been Matched with Tiago as my daughters service dog. We can never thank the Geary family enough for the hard work that they put into raising Danyelle’s Service dog. It has got to be a heart wrenching thing to have to return Tiago for his further training. Danyelle is 13 and has a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder diagnosis due to her birth Mom consuming Alcohol while pregnant. We hope to connect with this family to personally thank them for what they have done for our family.