Businesswoman starts 16 months of training with future assistance dog

The Stillwater Gazette recently published a great article about Puppy Raiser Bonnie Bakke and her assistance dog in training Zoey. Bonnie works full-time and brings Zoey along everywhere she goes … including the office! So, even if you’re working the good ol’ 9 to 5, consider being a volunteer Puppy Raiser today!

Read more about the adventures of Bonnie & Zoey below.

FROM THE STILLWATER GAZETTE

Zoey, a 10-week-old yellow lab puppy, travels everywhere with her human, Bonnie Bakke. She even goes to Bakke’s office in downtown Stillwater. Zoey loves to sleep under Bakke’s desk when clients are around and play with crinkly chew toys when they aren’t. Zoey doesn’t always get to play, though. She must train regularly if she is going to succeed at becoming a service dog.

“It’s my job to teach her some basic commands — sit, lay down, stay, walk on a leash — and socialize her, so take her out in the community and bring her to my office,” Bakke said.

Bakke is a first-time volunteer puppy-raiser for Can Do Canines, and she will train Zoey for 16 months. As a puppy-raiser, she has agreed to pay all Zoey’s expenses, including food, toys, treats and veterinary care for 16 months.

“Last week we went to Grand View Lodge for my company’s summer regional meeting, so she went to a business meeting four hours every day,” Bakke said. “The man who ran the meeting said, ‘If I hear her bark once you’re out.’ She never barked. She stayed under the desk. She was quiet. … She was really good.

“(Zoey’s training is) mostly praise, but it’s also my job to teach her that she’s a dog, and that she’s going to be a working dog. She’ll have a cape, and eventually she’ll learn that when she puts the cape on she’s working,”

Within a week, Zoey knew her name and would sit and lie down on command. She will now chase and retrieve a ball, though she gets distracted quickly. She is currently working on potty training, rolling over and going to her mat on command.

“She has a little mat that they gave us,” Bakke said. “It’s like a little polar fleece square mat that can go in her little puppy bag and be placed anywhere in a restaurant or wherever, and then she’ll know that she has to just lie on that mat.”

Can Do Canines is an organization dedicated to helping people with disabilities by pairing them with specially trained dogs. They train five types of service dogs: hearing assist, mobility assist, seizure assist, diabetes assist and autism assist. No one knows yet what kind of service dog Zoey will become.