Service Dogs embark upon new journey

UTD Service-dogs in Training prepares to graduate two pups on to off-campus professional program

Despite a “ruff” year in quarantine, service-dogs-in-training Ohana and Winnie are set to graduate from the UTD SIT (Service-dog In Training) club this week and matriculate to a professional pathway with Canine Companions. For outgoing SIT president and business administration senior Aubrey Rowan, it’s a bittersweet occasion.

“Ohana’s the second puppy I raised,” Rowan said. “When our dogs graduate…we usually do a celebration here on campus with our students in the club so [they] can say hello one last time before they head off.”

This is both Ohana and Rowan’s last semester at UTD. Rowan’s first puppy, Colby, was released on medical leave and is now training to become a licensed therapy dog.

UTD SIT has been raising dogs on campus since 2016, bringing them to club meetings and classes alike. With their unusually calm demeanor indoors, university faculty and staff remember Ohana and Winnie fondly—even from their puppy years.

“They're like the best-behaved pets you're ever going to have in university housing. Most of the professors like having them in class—you don't notice them, which is the goal,” Rowan said. “They're better at class than I am sometimes.”

Kristen Lawson, an assistant professor in the School of Management, had both of Rowan’s dogs—Colby and Ohana— during her first semester on campus. She wished the pair of graduates the best in the next phase of their training journey.

“Both Colby and Ohana were great to have in class, never disruptive to me, Aubrey or the other students (although I do remember at one point hearing one of the gently sighing at a particularly boring point in my lecture, which seemed like an apt criticism),” Lawson said over email. “I love this program and am so glad we have it at UTD.”

Evidently, causing disruption is not so much a concern from the dogs as it is from the people around them. “Driveby petting” (when passers-by don’t ask permission before petting dogs on duty) and students calling to them can be com -