When I was around 7 years old, I saw a puppy raiser training a future service dog at the mall. At that moment, I knew I wanted to do that when I grew up, so when I came to UGA, I was thrilled to see there was an opportunity to do so.

Fall of 2022, I joined Dawgs Raising Dogs, a club of puppy raisers and campers with the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind (GDF) and America’s VetDogs (AVD). That following January, I joined fundraising on the events team. And in March, I began my puppy raising journey with a 4 month old, female black lab named Lomi. A few months later, I became the head of events for the fundraising team, and I’ve spent this past year raising Lomi and organizing events to raise money for GDF and AVD, recruiting new raisers and campers, and spreading awareness about service dogs. I quickly learned that Lomi was an insanely intelligent dog, and I learned so much about raising and handling a dog, along with service animals and their rights (as well as their handler’s rights).

Everywhere I went, Lomi was with me. She was my shopping and study buddy, and she was a micro-celebrity in all of my classes. On June 7th, 2024 I said goodbye to my best friend. Lomi left Athens to return to the GDF headquarters in New York with hopes of becoming a part of their breeding colony, to mother future generations of guide and service dogs. Lomi changed my life, and I am anxiously waiting to see how she will continue changing other people’s lives.

P.S. if you'd like to learn more about raising a service dog or our org. in general, please reach out to me! I would love to chat about it.