Isaac is just like any other new student. He walks around the school, hangs out with his friends in the halls, sleeps during classes, and wags his tail when someone nice walks by. That’s right, wags his tail. Isaac is the seeing eye puppy in training that Junior Raven Weitzenhoffer is preparing for an exciting career as a service dog.

Weitzenhoffer is a part of FFA, or Future Farmers of America, and has been for the last three years. This year she decided to participate in a new way, partnering with Guide Dogs for the Blind to raise a little Labrador Retriever puppy to be the perfect guide dog.

“The hardest part is giving the animals up at the end of the show, and I was looking for new ways to get involved that I haven’t done before,” Weitzenhoffer said. “My mom told me about something a student at her school did and so we found the organization and we contacted them.”

Principal Hughes was especially excited to welcome Isaac to our school because of the impact he believed it would leave on the student body.

“It was not a problem at all because there are many benefits,”  Principal Hughes said. “I thought it would be good for our student body to be exposed to the training that these dogs undergo.  This is of course very preliminary training such as obedience and dealing with crowds, but it is valuable for students to see.”

Isaac is a 24/7 commitment for Weitzenhoffer. Even during classes, she is hard at work making sure Isaac can be the best service animal possible.

“I do most of the training in school because he already knows his basic commands like sit and stays,” Weitzenhoffer said. “I teach him control skills and how to act around large groups of people because someone who’s blind is really going to need him to know those things.”

But it’s not always a walk in the park for Weitzenhoffer. Isaac’s complicated training routine takes a lot of time and it isn’t always easy to bring him into a classroom. Ms. Klecka, one of the agriculture teachers, allows Isaac to stay crated in her classroom when he can’t be in other classes or is too tired after a busy day, etc.

“School is about making sure everything is right for our students,”  Principal Hughes said. “So if Isaac interferes with learning, he would be removed.  There is also the consideration for students who may be in class who have allergies.”  

However hard it may be for Raven Weitzenhoffer, she believes that the work is all worth it in the end.

“Some people may argue that something like this may be harder [than raising livestock in FFA] because I’m going to have him for longer and I still have to give him back [to Guide Dogs for the Blind] at the end,” Weitzenhoffer said. “But he is going to make a difference in someone’s life one day and that makes me feel happy.”