Each year, students have an opportunity to raise a service dog through a program called Dogs in the Dell. This is a program on campus that works through Susquehanna Service Dogs (SSD). Ellison Mentzer, a sophomore electrical engineering major, is raising SSD Bubba on campus.
SSD Bubba is an 18-week-old labrador. Mentzer described Bubba’s personality as “smart, energetic, emotionally in-tune, and excited.”
Raising a service dog on a college campus provides a unique setting for students. It can provide many obstacles for a puppy when it comes to training, but these obstacles are actually beneficial according to Mentzer.
“I think the college is an especially great place for training because there’s so many people and places and things, and you move around them all so much and so quickly,” Mentzer said. “And there are things that you can use in moderation as a teaching tool for the dog.”
Mentzer said he is currently working with SSD Bubba to learn the commands to sit, lay down, stay and hand targets, as well as door and elevator protocols.
Dogs in the Dell provides support to students raising and training service dogs on campus.
“Dogs in the Dell as a club is actually like a second family [for me],” Mentzer said. “I can always ask anyone in [Dogs in the Dell] and they’ve either handled it themselves, know how to handle it or know who to call. They have supplies that we share, they have advice and it’s really just awesome that everyone is so supportive”
Students also receive support through Susquehanna Service Dogs. They provide emergency calls and classes as well as make sure the process is as manageable as possible for students.
Mentzer’s hope is that students on campus are able to learn how to properly interact with training and working service dogs as well as how training dogs can be another form of giving back.
“Service is not one dimensional, and there are so many ways to give back to people in ways that give back to yourself at the same time,” Mentzer said. “I hope that they can learn or even be a part of Dogs in the Dell and SSD as a community.”
Service and joining groups like Dogs in the Dell is not only a way to help others, but a way to meet other people.
“One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was when you want to make friends, volunteer, because people who you meet volunteering will be good people and that is absolutely something that has followed me into Dogs in the Dell,” Mentzer said. “It’s really just an awesome program and we are so lucky [at] how awesome Etown is in letting us work with and have this program.”
One of the most difficult parts of training service dogs is giving the dog up once it is ready to move on to serve an owner. Mentzer shared how difficult the thought of this is.
“I know that it’s a part of both his and my life and I know that he’s going on to support someone in such a meaningful way that it’s just absolutely worth every second,” Mentzer said. “I know that the time I spend with him is making him better for someone else so it really does make it easier so far.”
Mentzer’s background working on a farm and rescuing animals to help people in need helped pave the way to his own desires to continue the work through Susquehanna Service Dogs.
“I am no stranger to service to people through animals,” Mentzer said. “[Through] my time working at a farm where we rescued animals and had programs for at-risk teens, special needs, disabled populations, veterans [who] have PTSD and so much more by training animals, really just [helps show that] what you’re doing and what [SSD Bubba is] going to do is such an awesome thing.”
Mentzer hopes to continue this passion in the future by continuing to raise service dogs throughout his life.
