The Big Dog On Campus

Meet the black lab that is taking the CB campus by storm. Many Christian Brothers students have noticed the cute black lab walking around with Mrs. Diane Heine ’71 on campus, some have been wondering: what is the purpose of having this majestic creature on campus? Mrs. Heine, the administrative assistant to the Guidance & […]

Written by: Camille Peters - Talon Community Editor

2012/10/03 10:50 AM

Meet the black lab that is taking the CB campus by storm.

Many Christian Brothers students have noticed the cute black lab walking around with Mrs. Diane Heine ’71 on campus, some have been wondering: what is the purpose of having this majestic creature on campus?

Mrs. Heine, the administrative assistant to the Guidance & Counseling Department, is a foster parent for her temporary black lab, Lassen. Lassen came from the organization called Pawsitive Solutions, which retrieves service dogs and trains them to service autistic children.

The demand for foster parents for these service dogs have been really growing through this past year. Pawsite matches the dogs with foster parents and then acquires volunteer puppy raisers for about a year, so the dog can full develop and properly trained to further become a service dog.

After the puppy has grown and matured, Pawsitive Solution then provides the dog with adequate and advanced training. Once the dog “graduates” from this stage they are then given to a autistic child.

Mrs. Heine, who is also the CB Varsity women’s volleyball coach, found this organization by listening to the news and jumped at the opportunity to train the canine.

“We had just lost a dog six months prior to that, and we were kind of hesitant whether or not we wanted to get another one,” she says. “So I just thought this organization would be a good segway into getting another family dog.”

The experience has exceeded her expectations.

“We knew that they would be only part time, but soon enough you forget that and completely fall in love with these dogs,” Mrs. Heine says.

She also really enjoys his company at school and thinks that bringing the dog everywhere with her is a great way to get him used to people and crowds.

“When the dogs are properly trained they can really accompany people anywhere,” she says. “Lassen goes to restaurants, Rivercats games, stores, and malls — I mean he really goes every where.”

“He even just recently went to a dance recital!”

Lassen is turning a year old in about a week, so the organization will take him back as the organizations thinks he is ready for the advanced training. Mrs. Heine has been thrilled with the program and by mid-November she should have another eight week old puppy in training to become a service dog.

The benefits for autistic children with service dogs is the amount of dignity that is given back. In some social situations, an autistic child would be anxious and act out, and when people see the screaming and acting out the service dog, signifies that this is a disabled child and more respect is given to that family.

If you are interested in fostering a service dog, contact http://pawsitivesolutions.org/