By Minnie Stephenson

Riggs, the sponsor dog for Terps Raising Pups just turned 1.

Terps Raising Pups is a student organization that works with The Guide Dog Foundation and its sister organization, America’s VetDogs, to raise puppies into guide dogs for the blind and service dogs for veterans, active duty service members and first responders with PTSD. 

With help from the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center, the organization raised $6,000 to name Riggs the sponsor dog, with all the money going to the Guide Dog Foundation and America’s VetDogs. 

Natalie Reardon, a senior general biology major, raises Riggs. Here we can follow them at a puppy training class at Adele H. Stamp Student Union. 

Reardon stands with Riggs outside Stamp at the beginning of class. Riggs is the second puppy that Reardon has raised, but the third overall sponsor dog for the student organization. He’s quite lazy and mellow, she said. Photo taken on Dec. 14 2021. 

The teacher of the class, Deana Stone, is the puppy program representative for Terps Raising Pups, and she also works with the Guide Dog Foundation in Washington, and has been for nine years. She’s currently raising 4-month-old Biscuit, the official dog of the Washington Capitals. Biscuit is working to become a service dog for either a veteran, or a first responder with disabilities, she said. Stone also raised the first official dog of the Capitals, Captain, who graduated the program in June. 

Reardon cleans Riggs’ ears at the beginning of class. Riggs sat still while she did this, and his ears passed the test. Labs make up the majority of the puppies that come from the Guide Dog Foundation. Labs make good service dogs because of their “temperament and their trainability,” Reardon said. 

Reardon, right, walks Riggs alongside Jacquelyn Leffel, left, a senior human development major, who walks Zale. They take the puppies up and down the sidewalk to see how well they can conduct themselves with other people around and stay next to their raisers. 

Reardon gives Riggs positive reinforcement after he succeeds on his walk. His yellow vest is standard to show that he’s a guide dog in training, but the vest comes off during non-training hours so Riggs can be a regular puppy. The vest also comes off briefly when the puppies go to the bathroom. This reinforces that they shouldn’t be going to the bathroom when the vest is on, and they also don’t want to soil it, said one of the raisers, Shannen Auffarth, a senior animal science major. 

Riggs uses a gentle leader, which is given to all the raisers when they receive their puppy, Reardon said. The gentle leader is a head collar that’s less harsh than a muzzle, but can still guide the puppy’s head back to the raiser when they pull gently. 

Riggs receives a piece of kibble for doing what he’s supposed to do, another type of positive reinforcement. The main type of positive reinforcement is called marking, which is verbal reinforcement. Reardon says “yes” anytime Riggs follows instructions well. “If he sits, as soon as he puts his butt down into a sit, you’ll hear me say ‘yes,’ and then he looks at me because he knows his marker word and then he gets a kibble immediately afterward,” Reardon said. 

Reardon takes Riggs up the stairs in Stamp. All the puppies train on stairs, because stairs can be a challenge for many dogs. The goal is for the puppy to successfully walk up and down the stairs without hesitation and without needing to be pulled by their raiser. Riggs always has some trouble on this particular set of stairs, Reardon said, so she and Riggs went up and down the stairs a few times more than the other sets of puppies and raisers. 

Reardon walks away from Riggs while telling Riggs to stay to see if he can follow commands. Once the raisers are far away, they tell their puppy to come. Riggs successfully stayed and came on his first try. The more experienced puppies are trusted to be off leash during these maneuvers, but the younger puppies in training still remain leashed, Reardon said.

Stone talks to all the raisers at the end of the class. Stone said this class was refreshing, because the dogs in her classes earlier that day hadn’t done so well. “I couldn’t be more proud of our student puppy raisers and sitters. They put in so much time and hard work into their dogs,” Stone said. “They’re not just puppy raisers, they’re full-time students.” 

Reardon stands with Riggs at the end of class. Reardon graduates in the spring, but Riggs is expected to graduate the program and leave Reardon at the end of February, she said. “I’ve always really had a love for dogs,” Reardon said. She initially joined Terps Raising Pups her second semester of freshman year, and has been a part of it since then. “I just stayed because it’s really been the best club that I’ve joined here.”