Often seen walking around campus with their trainers, service dogs can make adorable companions. Yet, they are more than just cute wet noses; Illini Service Dogs are trained to improve people’s lives.

Founded in 2010, this registered student organization is the first program to allow University students to train dogs to positively affect others across the country. The dogs are trained for service throughout their youth by volunteer students on campus. Once fully trained, Illini Service Dogs are given to someone in need of assistance, free of charge.  

There are currently four dogs being trained through the program. Blue, Scout, Willard and Grainger were adopted as puppies from donating breeders or shelters. Each dog rotates from handler to handler, called “secondary handlers,” throughout the week while living with one specific trainer, or “primary handler.” Throughout training, the dogs work on a variety of tasks, such as retrieving objects and flipping light switches, while also working on learning civility in public spaces and their duty as a guide dog. 

“Blue lives with me, but secondary student trainers take him throughout the week and train him,” said Amanda Gleason, Illini Service Dogs vice president and junior in Applied Health Sciences.

To become a trainer, veteran members of the RSO teach new members the requirements of the job during their weekly Sunday meetings at the Wesley United Methodist Church, located at 1203 W. Green St. in Urbana. The organization’s funding pays for all necessary provisions and veterinary care the primary handlers need to raise and train the dogs. 

When the dogs are donated to the Illini Service Dog program as puppies, they begin their training immediately. The student trainers work with them daily by taking them to classes, meals and anywhere throughout campus to help prepare them for their future lives as service dogs. The dogs are required to be able to perform necessary tasks needed by people with disabilities before the dogs can “graduate.” Service dogs are given to disabled individuals once the handlers deem they are fully trained, after which the trainers are sent updates about the dogs and their adaptation to their new home. 

The trainers are not paid to be primary or secondary trainers, so the program is entirely voluntary. Students of any major that are interested in training dogs are able to become trainers and assist in handling the dogs.  

“My major isn’t animal sciences, but I still am a trainer and an active member of the club,” said Kendall Cox, secondary trainer, secretary and treasurer for Illini Service Dogs and junior in Engineering. “I joined my freshman year when I saw the booth on Quad Day.”

On the Illini Service Dog website, the trainers keep a regular blog of how the dogs are improving throughout their training, and videos and pictures are posted of the dogs’ training milestones. However, once the dogs are given away, there is a confidential relationship between the new owners and the dogs, and updates are only sent to the organization by the new owner. 

“We aren’t allowed to contact the new owners of the dogs, but they often send our program updates and we get to see how the dogs have improved,” Cox said. 

The program hires new trainers every fall to handle dogs and teaches them more than 40 different commands before their graduation.  

“It’s a really cool program because the dogs are given to disabled people entirely free of charge, and we have fun training the dogs in the process,” Gleason said. 

Christina can be reached at [email protected].