so this was about 10 months in the making, but just last week i had my first opportunity to be a sitter for a service dog being trained as a part of aggie guide & service dogs (ags). it's still crazy to think about the way i even found out about this org and how i just stuck to it.
(this is skylar btw!)
so i'm a part of texas a&m computing society (tacs) and we were tabling during the first week of our sprint semester of this year at our university's semesterly organization open house (incoming freshman or students not involved in organizations usually will go around and learn more about clubs here at texas a&m that might interest them). but basically, somehow and someway, during that same open house, i believe i noticed a dog (i think this was benny) wearing a red vest walking around with his trainer (i think this was faith). i wanted to pet him but didn't think i could ask since he was wearing a working vest. so i just went about my day as normal and kept explaining tacs to people who passed by and were curious to learn more. then somehow randomly, i look at our table and right next to our board, there's a tiny little flyer with a picture of a dog. it was for the organization aggie guide & service dogs. i love dogs so i was instantly intrigued but also confused because it was such an odd coincidence that i saw one of the dogs (that could've been) from the org and somehow a flyer ended up on only our table out of the rest of the orgs tabling. after my tabling shift was over, i ended up going down and talking to an officer (bryce) who gave me a whole bunch of details on how everything worked with approximate timelines (i somehow dragged kayley into this even though she's allergic to dogs).
at first, on my walk home it seemed like way too much work and something that felt way out of reach. but then, akshay briefly mentioned how "this would be a fun/cool side quest" and that changed my perspective entirely. i think having that conversation with him on the way home definitely got me really excited to the point where i practically manifested my time in this org. i went to all the ags 101 classes (basic information about how the dogs in ags are handled), getting clicker hours (practicing using a clicker with dogs at aggieland humane society), started going to campus trainings (worked on distractions for the dogs collectively), and pt outings (worked on distractions with one trainer and dog). with enough time spent at aggieland humane society (w/ vincent), i was able to pass my clicker test and have the ability to handle at all the outings. since it was towards the end of the semester (beginning of april) when i passed my clicker test, there wasn't too much opportunity left for the ct outings and pt outings, so i had to wait a little bit into this current semester. after a couple ct outings this semester, i finally got the ags manual, studied for three weeks, and passed the test just two weeks ago.
i don't know why, but with all of this happening i decided to keep it somewhat of a secret where i would surprise everyone randomly with a dog one day. i remember the very first time that i kept it a secret was when adi, akshay, and i were going to get groceries, but i had a pt outing around the same time. so just as we were pulling out to leave to walmart, i said i have to go and went to the pt outing instead. i asked them to get me like the 2-3 items i needed so it worked out. it was a fun little surprise and maybe the reason i kept it a secret was because i didn't know when i would first get the opportunity to introduce everyone to one of the dogs. regardless though, everything worked out all good.
and lastly, i have never had a dog on my own before so even handling skylar on my own was a unique experience. i never realized how much energy 8 month old pups (especially golden retrievers) can have and how exhausting it can be, so huge props to the trainers who balance this with school. overall though, investing time in a side quest, especially one where i find joy working with dogs and also indirectly help people with disabilities, has been incredibly worthwhile. dedicating some amount of time every day or week to even just a singular craft, which may seem to initially have a steep slope, has a lot of upside and this is the perfect example of that :)
- aayush