Students help train Freedom Canines for service

While most Wimberley High School students were working on their exams on math, science, English and history, five other local “students” are working on passing their first exam.

Freedom Canines International (FCI) and Wimberley ISD have partnered together to help these “students” achieve their certification to become service dogs that help people who are disabled.

Part of the process is to pass what is called the Canine Good Citizen test, which is considered the first test for these canines as they work towards being full fledged service dogs.

The seven dogs have passed their first test and will now go on to the next stages of training to better learn where each individual dog can fit in a service role.

The partnership between both FCI and WISD not only helps the dogs themselves but also the students when it comes to training animals.

“This mutually beneficial partnership provides unique, hands-on learning opportunities for puppy raisers and all students in participating classes,” Becky Kier of Freedom Canines says.

“FCI training methods utilize positive reinforcement. Students learn to shape and reinforce good behavior. These desirable behaviors can then be used to improve challenging behaviors. The same training methods can be applied to all species – horses, marine mammals and most importantly humans. As students gain confidence in their training skills, they have opportunities to mentor other students and do public presentations about FCI.”

“FCI’s access to Wimberley High School has given us so many wonderful training and socialization opportunities for puppies,” Kier continued. “We have a sports stadium, a theater, a band, a cafeteria and so much more. Training as much as we can at the school has lowered our overhead and therefore helps us to be as efficient as possible with our donated funds. Partnering with the school has also helped us gain essential volunteer support.

FCI has seen their partnership over the last year as Danforth Junior High and Blue Hole Primary School have started establishing connections. In fact, the growth has been so big that FCI has run out of dogs to share.

“We have had a growth of day raisers in the last months of school to the point that we don’t have enough dogs to go around,” Kier said.

“We began the Danforth Club in February, and it has stayed popular. Our high school and junior high clubs will continue to meet over the summer, which is new. We usually just meet with raisers. Three teachers from Blue Hole Primary have been training with us to use dogs in their classroom to help with reading, behavioral challenges and just to keep kids engaged.”

One of the students, Trinity Rivera, has been working with Ash, a black lab.

“I’ve been with him since he was a few weeks old,” Rivera said. “I started taking him to school when he was 56 days old… He goes through my daily routine with me, but I’m training him throughout the day. He has to mind his manners, pay attention, listen to his commands and act like a normal service dog.”

Rivera is also proud that Ash was able to pass the CGC test.

“I’m really proud of him,” Rivera said. “He has come a long way from where he started.”

For Annie Novack and her dog Holly, it was a stressful test for the pair due to Holly’s excitable personality.

But after calming down, Holly was able to pass her test and move on to the next stage of training.

“I’ve been her puppy raiser since she was six weeks old, and I was there when she was born,” Novack said. “I was pretty proud of her, because dogs are her big distraction or anything that moves. So just being able to move along and focus.”

In the end of FCI, the goal is to provide service dogs not only for the Wimberley Valley but also to the surrounding areas as well.

“The ultimate goal for our dogs is to become assistance dogs within our community and surrounding areas,” Kier said. “Our dogs are placed free of charge. We select clients through an application process. We are currently accepting applications for diabetic alert, service, hearing and facility dogs. We need to spread the word about this too as we need applicants from our community and surrounding areas.”

However, FCI is always looking for people to be involved in their organization.

“Our biggest need is foster homes and puppy raisers,” Kier said. “Our new litter is due in mid July. Those pups will move in with raisers in early September, and our current litter will enter advanced training. Dogs in advanced training are well behaved adult dogs. They need a home to relax in on evenings and weekends. They are dropped daily on campus where Todd and I will be doing their advanced training with practicum students. Any community member that is willing to transport a dog to and from school could be a foster home. It could be a student, a family or any volunteer. If volunteers live close to us in Woodcreek North, we can put and drop off dogs as well. Foster homes can have other animals and dogs as long as they are dog friendly. Puppy raisers commit to raising a puppy, socializing and attending training with us for one year. If full time raising is not a possibility, we have co-raising opportunities where two raisers share one puppy.”

“If fostering or raising is not for you, as a nonprofit we need volunteers in many areas: fundraising, grants, website, events,” Kier continued. “We have our first big fundraiser, a dog walk, scheduled for Oct. 29 and need lots of volunteers to coordinate that. We are expanding our BOD, so we are even on the lookout for new board members.”

If you want to be involved with Freedom Canines International, please visit their website at freedomcanines. com, by email at info@ freedomcanines.com, and phone number at (512)648-1027.