Welcome back to school! College is a time to discover yourself, your hobbies, and career path. It is packed full of new opportunities to explore, grow, and thrive, with stress and excitement as ever-present roommates. As you prepare for or are actively settling into campus life, we want to provide you with some guidance to assist in the transition with your guide dog.
As college students, we have all made the mistake of staying up too late, hitting the snooze on our alarm too many times, and dashing to an early morning class at the speed of light to avoid embarrassment from our professor or classmates. While you might be able to pull it off, the dog cannot lie; he or she needs to use the bathroom before running anywhere. It is the handler’s responsibility to provide their guide dog with a consistent routine to relieve and eat every day. Build time into your schedule to allow for these opportunities, whether that means committing to getting up earlier in the morning, sufficient breaks between classes, or longer mealtimes for you to best accommodate. Always proactively balance your dog’s needs and your own.
It is best practice to reach out to your college’s office of disability services or accessibility to let them know you will have a guide dog on campus with you. They will guide you through the process of registering your dog with the university, and any other reasonable accommodations you may need related to your animal service. It is also beneficial to contact your professors each semester with this information, as you would with any other academic accommodations. They may assist you with seating arrangements, identifying potential relief breaks during longer classes, appropriate interactions with other students, etc. You can choose to have the initial conversation verbally but be sure to provide any accommodation requests in writing, including your guide dog, in case you experience access discrimination down the road.
If you are living on campus with your guide dog, notify your college’s office of disability services or accessibility. They will work with you to determine your needs, and coordinate with residential services to implement your reasonable accommodation requests. You may request a dorm in a centralized location that is closer to your classes and dining hall. You may also request a single dorm room to allow for greater safety and space for your guide. If you choose to have roommates, first verify that they do not have dog allergies. Be sure to establish boundaries, such as cleanliness, rules for interacting with your guide dog, system of organization, etc. Inquire with your office for disability services or accessibility as to your college’s process for arranging housing accommodations and roommate agreements, as procedures may vary. Ultimately, you should choose the type of housing that allows you to feel the safest and most comfortable in the long run.
Consider low-traffic areas such as patches of grass, mulch, or quiet parking lots. Avoid locations such as sidewalks, student courtyards and greens, and public gardens. The relief area should be a bit off the beaten path, but still convenient for you to access at various points of the day. If you live on a larger campus, consider identifying multiple relief areas that correspond to the campus locations you visit most frequently throughout the day, such as your dorm, dining hall, and class buildings. You can ask the college if they have a specified service animal relief area, but often these areas are unmarked. When choosing a relief area, make sure there is a trashcan nearby. While this sounds like a given, some campuses do not place outdoor trashcans in accessible locations for aesthetic reasons. The last thing you want to do is to carry your dog’s business across campus!
While guide dogs can be skilled at integrating into college life, there is a learning curve each of them must endure. In order to set your guide dog up for the greatest amount of success, we strongly recommend learning routes with your white cane first before patterning the dog and teaching new targets. You should be familiar with the general layout of your campus, major decision points/intersections throughout, dorm, dining hall, main class buildings, and recreational areas. As a guide dog transitions to a campus environment, they thrive on your leadership, confidence level, and direction as their handler. While you are not expected to know every individual aspect of your campus, you should be comfortable building a foundation of knowledge and awareness for yourself.
Even if you are familiar with your routes beforehand, it is unfair to assume your dog will catch on instantaneously. Maintain realistic expectations of your dog. If you rush through the process, odds are your dog will pick up on your stress. Teach routes with an appropriate amount of patience and repetition. Be mindful of winding paths, blended curbs, and complex decision points or intersections that may take extra time to familiarize your dog with. If you are returning to school, you may find that your dog attempts to target previously visited locations. You can thank them by saying, “not now,” but encourage them to follow your directions to proceed to the new route. Be concise, positive, and patient with your directions as you target new locations or practice preexisting routes. Do not be afraid to ask for assistance from a friend, family member, or office for disability services or accessibility.
While many people are well-intentioned, you may find that certain individuals are drawn to your dog and do not realize the harm in talking to, petting, attempting to feed, or otherwise distracting them from their work. You will encounter those who have never seen a guide dog before and are unfamiliar with how to interact with or assist a guide dog team. Occasionally, one of your friends might even forget the rules. You should always educate politely, but firmly, on the tasks your dog performs, and why it is essential for them to maintain safety and accuracy through their focus on you as the handler. A guide dog can serve as a powerful social ice breaker, but also a source of curiosity. Guiding Eyes for the Blind provides informational handouts on the dos and don’ts of interacting with guide dog teams should you want to provide your college or fellow students with these materials to support your conversations and advocacy efforts.
While it is not always possible, try to visit your classrooms before classes begin to determine their layouts and where you would like to sit with your guide dog. From small round-table seminar spaces to large auditoriums, there are many different configurations. Safety is the priority; choose seats where your dog is unlikely to be stepped on, ideally apart from main walkways and doorways. However, you should stay closer to the front of the room and near an exit there should be an emergency in which you and your dog need to evacuate. Even if your dog is unable to fit under the seat, keep them close using a short leash tucked under your leg. Otherwise, they may attempt to visit your adoring classmates. Our Labradors and Shepherds are inherently social and would probably join every sorority on campus if they could!
It is best to always be prepared if your classes run late, or you do not have time to walk back to your dorm during breaks and mealtimes. Consider keeping the following items handy:
It is quite common for a college student’s home environment to vary significantly from their campus and surrounding area. Your dog may become accustomed to these transitions, but be sure to account for any drastic changes in routine, walking routes, activity level, etc. If you have limited walking routes at home compared to your college campus, consider building more playtime into your schedule to allow for more exercise opportunities, or ask your family members to drive you into a more walkable area on a regular basis to keep your skills sharp as a team. Practice route development, street crossings, targeting, obedience, and other fundamentals of guide work. You may also find that you need to adjust your dog’s food intake slightly to accommodate your activity level. Do not let them gain the freshman fifteen!
Just as we need to step away from papers, study sessions, and the inevitable pop quizzes, our dogs need breaks from work as well. While they have toys in your dorm room, they cannot run far. Ask the college and fellow students if there is a safe, clean fenced off area you can utilize for play. If not, consider using a long line. You can entertain your dog with a game of fetch, recall, or other activity they enjoy. Identify an empty classroom as an alternative during inclement weather. If your dog is not playing solo, make sure you have properly introduced your guide to the other dog and always monitor for appropriate interactions and behavior.
For more training-specific advice, please visit our online class lectures, specifically Chapter 29: Campus Travel
