WSD Photo Essay

Steven Murphy

Mr. Jennifer Hudgens

WRD-110

October 13, 2015

WSD Financials

WSD, also known as Wildcat Service Dogs, is the community that I chose to do. I have chose this community because they’re a student run organization, only available to join here on University of Kentucky’s campus. This is also a well known organization on campus because they are one of only two organizations that train service dogs for helping the impaired. By this, I mean they are always seen around campus and they’re identified by the blue vest on their dogs, not the red vest. The red vest is for 4 paws organization, which they do their own dog training as well, but the dogs that they get aren’t new and young like WSD’s dogs are. 

          WSD gets their dogs when they’re still little puppies, meaning 8 weeks old, and they start the training from there, while 4 paws gets their dogs after the dogs have already gone through some training with prisoners on good behavior. Another difference between WSD and 4 paws is one is student run and the other is a multi-college run organization. The main difference I want you to know about is their financial differences. With 4 Paws for Ability being a multi-college run organization, it becomes much  easier for the organizations to gain financials and get their name out in the open, but on the other hand, we have WSD, a single college organization, which raises it’s funds all by itself in order to pay for their dogs, crates, and all the other necessities that a dog will need. In the picture provided below, I give you one of the many puppies that WSD has purchased for this year’s trainer’s. With this picture you can tell by one of the trainer’s faces, Izzy , that they cherish their dogs from being brand new in the program, all the way until they have to take them to ADAI for their further training. WSD sends their dogs off to ADAI, after a year of training the dog themselves, and then ADAI takes over from that point and test the dogs to see what skills they can do and which they cannot, which is the deciding factor for the dogs on where they get placed and go to after training.  

The founder of Wildcat Service Dogs is Katie Skarvan. She wasn’t originally an attendee of our university. Instead, she was a transfer from Texas A&M, who was originally from Louisville where she was volunteering at Paws for a Purpose from her seventh grade year on. When she decided she wanted to start a dog training program here on campus, then she talked to Paws for a Purpose about getting a dog. In order to get the organization started, she first had to run it across the administration of the university. This would usually strike some fear into people because they’re having to go in front of the administration of their entire university. This didn’t affect Katie Skarvan thought, because stinging today is the Wildcat Service Dogs.

One thing that all trainers tend to find hard about the program would be something every dog lover would find hard about raising a dog. The fact that it’s much harder to let go than it is to get attached. Skarvan started by training each dog through a two year plan, but eventually lowered the dog’s training down to a one year training process with their trainers, after getting help from another dog training program in Ohio. This company is known as ADAI. ADAI is an organization in Ohio that prospers in Service Dog Training programs. It’s also a program that has been available for over 25 years now and has assisted in the life of over 250 people and their communities. ADAI is the program where WSD sends their dogs to after their year of training here with the trainers are done, which then sends the dogs through their process and places them where they see fit. For example; they can be placed in the Puppy Prison Program, Therapy Dog Program, Service Dog Program, Facility Therapy Dog Program, School Therapy Dog Program, or a Special Needs therapy Dog Program. Each one of these programs require for the dog in training to know certain skills and be able to perform certain task that a regular dog wouldn’t know how to do without being taught.

WORKS CITED:

Blackford, Linda. "Students Make University of Kentucky a Laboratory for Training Service Dogs." Kentucky.com Lexington Herald Leader. Lexington Herald Leader, 31 Dec. 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.

"University of Kentucky Students Training Service Dogs." Life With Dogs. ADMIN, 2013. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.