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Exposure provides a forum for student groups and area non-profits at Michigan State University and the Greater Lansing area. On the show, you'll hear discussions about the groups themselves as well as the relevant issues of today.
This is exposures on Impact 89 FM.
Ella:W DBM East Lansing.
Tessa Kresch:The show that lets you know about everything that goes on at the MSU campus that you otherwise might not know about. Tune in every Sunday at 9 AM. I'm your host, Tessa Krusch. Welcome to exposure. Hello.
Tessa Kresch:Hello. And welcome back to exposure. You are listening to season 15. I'm your host, Tessa Krusch. Today, we're talking about leader dogs for the blind club.
Tessa Kresch:This group educates and supports students who are interested in raising puppies that will one day become guide dogs for people who are blind. I'm here with Ella, Sarah, and Beth. Thank you guys so much for joining me today.
Sarah:We're excited to be here.
Ella:Thank you for having us.
Beth:Yeah. Thank you so much.
Tessa Kresch:Of course. For starters, could you guys introduce yourselves?
Sarah:My name's Sarah Berza. I'm the president of the club. I'm studying animal science, and I'm a senior this year.
Ella:I'm Ella Lin. I am the vice president of the club this year, and I'll I'm a junior studying animal science.
Beth:Hello. I'm Beth Sorrell. I'm the secretary of the club. I'm studying animal science this year, and I'm a senior as well.
Tessa Kresch:So you guys are all animal science majors. Would you say that's pretty general for the club?
Sarah:For the most part, it kinda depends. A lot of our eboard is definitely animal science, but, like, the club members kinda depend.
Tessa Kresch:But it's just a whole group of animal lovers, I'm assuming.
Sarah:Yeah. For the most part.
Ella:Yeah. And everyone likes dogs in our group.
Tessa Kresch:I'd hope so. It's dealing with dogs a lot. Right?
Beth:Mhmm. Yes.
Tessa Kresch:That's fantastic. So what inspired you guys personally to join the club? Was it your love for dogs?
Sarah:It was definitely my love for dogs. I was kinda homesick and I was like, okay, what can I do? And then I was walking around to participation, and I saw a dog, and I was like, oh, how do I join that club?
Ella:I need 2. I think the same story goes for me too. I miss my dog at home a lot, so like having a club on campus that has dogs that you can like pet and cuddle with, oh Oh my gosh. It made my whole day better when I saw Matt's participation. Also, that I just love animals in general and helping people.
Ella:So I thought this club was a good inspiration.
Beth:Yeah. I actually joined because my neighbor is blind and she has a dog from Leader Dogs For the Blind. And she told me about this club, and so I looked them up, and I joined. And then now here we are.
Tessa Kresch:Yeah. It seems like just raising these dogs and working with them, you're doing such a good deed. And you've seen it play out in someone who's blind. Have you guys seen the impact of the work you've been doing?
Sarah:Yeah. 1 of our puppy counselors actually is in contact with 1 of the, like, actually working leader dog that she raised. So I've gotten to meet with Tim a little bit, and I think it's been super cool to see, like, how well leader dog Monroe, like, helps out his life.
Beth:Yeah. And I like to see the impact it has on my neighbor. She used to be able to see, and now she can't. And that dog really changed her life, and it really impacted her in a positive way. She can now go around our town without having to worry about getting lost.
Beth:And that's why I wanted to raise these puppies. And that's also why I joined the club as well, and I thought it was amazing.
Ella:I just remember when we did the field trip with our club to the actual leader dog facility in Rochester Hills, you got to see more of, like, what actually went into training the dog and how much work it actually takes to prepare the dog to be a guide dog for visually impaired people. So just like that whole aspect.
Tessa Kresch:I'm sure it takes so much to make these dogs because people depend on them. So what's the training process of creating and training a leader dog?
Sarah:So you have them about 12 to 15 months depending on how long you have your puppy for. That's like the full time raising. Obviously, we have pass long programs, so you would have them for about 6 months each or short term raising, like Beth just did, like, a 3 week raising period. But for the most time, it's about a year. You do a lot of their foundational skills, sit, down, touch, how to settle in public, stuff like that.
Sarah:And then they'll go back to Leader Dogs to Blind for more of their formal training, more kind of applying those foundational skills to, like, real life situations. So, like, one thing that I like to mention is, like, if there's not a sidewalk, what's the puppy do? Or, if there's, like, a low hanging branch that wouldn't necessarily impact the dog, but it impacts the client, then having to navigate that, that's what would be applied at, like, formal training.
Beth:Foundations, and then it goes to basics, and then intermediate and advanced. And once, like, they pass advanced, they get matched potentially with a client. So they match up the dogs with how the client their walking speed is so that the dog can, like, guide them correctly with the pace that they walk. And so the dogs we match with the client and then, the guide dog mobility instructors will, like, work with that client and the dog in, like, a city setting or, they do deliveries that they deliver the dogs directly to where the client lives because, like, not everyone lives in a big city. So, they work with that person in their, like, environment.
Beth:And so they kinda, like, get the dog used to, where that client lives, and that's really helpful for them.
Tessa Kresch:When people are involved in this club and they're not actually able to puppy raise, what are people doing?
Sarah:So we do well, we at least like to try and do at least 1 puppy activity each meeting. So this is hands on experience with the dogs. We also have our puppy raiser meetings where you could get more experience, like, working with dogs, getting that experience. It's a lot of volunteering for, like, our fundraisers and kind of engaging in that. And also going on, like, our tours.
Sarah:Sometimes we'll go to Leader Rock Show Blind, do, like, community service activities, stuff like that. More just learning about the club, getting to pet puppies and, like, help with that training. So it's pretty helpful.
Tessa Kresch:Sounds like really fun meetings.
Sarah:I definitely recommend coming. It's kinda fun.
Ella:Coming from someone who's not a puppy raiser, I would say definitely what Sarah said. The puppy raiser meetings have probably been my favorite thing about coming to our club. Just because you get a lot more hands on with the puppies, you can see what training goes into them. And then other than that, like the fundraising, all the volunteer opportunities have been a really good way for me to show my, like, impact on the club without having to actually raise the dog.
Tessa Kresch:For sure. And this is the question I've been dying to know. How do you manage to raise puppies with so much energy when you're a student?
Sarah:It's definitely a lot of trying to stimulate their learning process. So my first puppy, Loki, he is just full of energy constantly. He's even like a year and a half, almost 2 years now, and he's just so full of energy constantly. So it's mostly, like, taking them on walks, doing, like, puzzle feeders to try and, like, kinda drain their mental energy and stuff like that, and also just kinda working with them in different situations.
Beth:It also varies depending on what type of dog you get. My first puppy, Tucker, he was also high energy like Sarah's puppy. So it was a lot of mental stimulation you had to do, a lot of food puzzles and walking. My last last 2 puppies I raised, they were more calm and couch potatoes, so I didn't really have much to worry about. Yeah.
Beth:They were I could just bring them anywhere, and they would be fine. So it just depends on what type of dog you get. And it's just, like, time balancing your time, setting priorities. So it's it's a lot, but, like, it's really a positive impact potentially on someone's life.
Tessa Kresch:Exactly. And I guess your own because I imagine hanging out with a puppy enriches you so much.
Sarah:It definitely does. Teaches me a lot of patience though.
Tessa Kresch:Yes. I imagine. It also encourages you to go outside even when it's really cold out.
Sarah:That was my battle today. I was like, I really don't wanna go for a walk, but, like, my puppy right now, Thor, he was like, well, I wanna go on a walk. Suck it up. It's not that cold. And I was like, yeah, you're right.
Tessa Kresch:Is everybody involved eventually going to be a puppy raiser?
Sarah:It's kind of just like if you personally want to raise. So I know I was really interested in raising after I went to some of the puppy raiser meetings, but some people go through their entire time, like, being in the club. They don't raise at all. They just wanna hang out with the puppies at the meetings, try and support us in different ways. But it's kind of just like an expectation of yourself.
Sarah:Do you wanna raise? Do you not wanna raise? Do you wanna help out in some other way?
Ella:I feel like a lot most people in the club actually aren't raising, but everyone has at least a little bit of interest in raising in the future. But I think the thing that everyone likes is that they can help the club. So going to the puppy raiser meetings, just doing anything they can to get involved is pretty much enough because a lot of people aren't in the right place or living situation where they can fully raise a puppy, so just doing everything that they can is good.
Tessa Kresch:Of course. I imagine it's it's very hard to balance it with school, but that's awesome that there's the opportunity to do so in college. I wish I knew about this sooner because I would have gotten a puppy 1st year.
Sarah:I'm glad I found out when I did, but it's probably good that I waited a little bit because I would have been like, okay, I really, really, really wanna raise and I wouldn't have been able to in the dorms.
Tessa Kresch:Do people do it in the dorms?
Sarah:They're not allowed right now. That's like an MSU policy.
Tessa Kresch:Okay.
Sarah:Hopefully, maybe one day we'll make our way towards having like a few, like a tester program in the res halls right now, but not yet.
Tessa Kresch:I wanna talk about the organization as a whole. Of course, you guys are working with the organization leader dogs for the blind. How do you as a club support them?
Sarah:So a few of our fundraisers per year actually go towards like donations towards the organization. So our merch fundraiser in the spring semester that entirely goes towards Leader Dog, and then a few of our other profits are also combined towards that donation. But we also help with at least one tour a year. We go to the facility and then do community service, so we maybe will pack up, like, the puppy, like, the puppy bags that razors get when they get their puppy and different community service stuff like that.
Beth:Yeah. We also advocate for Leader Dogs for the Blind. So a lot of us, specifically the puppy raisers, we when we take our puppies out in public and people ask, we, like, advocate for Leader Dogs for the Blind, and we give them we have cards that we can give them if they wanna learn more. And we also encourage just the general members of the club to also advocate for Lear dogs for the blind and share about like their mission, helping people who are blind and all that. So, yeah.
Beth:We just like, it's basically advocating for them.
Ella:We also have a lot of guest speakers that come to our meetings that share their personal experiences with Leader Dogs for the Blind or having their own Leader Dog, which I think really opens a lot of members' eyes about more of what the organization really does and how it impacts them.
Tessa Kresch:For sure. Yeah. It's much bigger than hanging out with puppies all the time. So did I just hear that you guys had a fundraiser that people can pet puppies?
Sarah:Yes, we do. At least one time a semester, we'll have our pay to pets. Usually we try and do them at The Rock. You pay a dollar, and then you can pet the puppies as much as you want, which I think is kind of nice. Or a lot of our other fundraisers that we do around campus, you also can do, like, a pay to pet situation, pet the puppies as much as you want.
Tessa Kresch:That sounds so fun. When do you do this? You just had one recently?
Sarah:Yeah. We just had one on the 3rd, I believe. And then we'll do another one in the spring semester. We don't really have that date figured out yet, but any of our fundraisers that we're doing around campus, we usually have, like, a pay to pet going on. So in I believe early December, late November, we're gonna have another fundraiser on campus, where it's, like, pictures with Santa and the puppies, but we'll all also do, like, a pay to pet during that.
Tessa Kresch:So obviously, it takes a lot to train a dog to, I mean, to be able to lead someone who's visually impaired. Are you responsible for doing all that training?
Beth:Yeah. We are responsible for, like, obviously giving teaching them the commands, giving them socialization to different environments. We basically you can bring the dog anywhere. There are some exceptions like a biocontainment area, so you can't really take them to like hospitals or like farms where like biosecurity is an issue. But basically you can kind of take them anywhere, positively expose them to different environments.
Beth:And, yeah, it it's just like another friend, like, attached to you, and you just take it wherever you go. And you just doing taking it wherever you go, like, that's good training for the puppy. So but on top of that, you also, obviously, have to train it in your home environment, wherever you're living, to get it used to, proper home manners as well. To learn how to train a dog, do you learn that in the meetings,
Tessa Kresch:or do you have to kinda do that on your own?
Beth:You don't really have to have any training experience of dogs. You don't even need to own any dogs. Some people come in not ever touching a dog and raise puppies. Oh. So you don't really have to have any experience.
Beth:We but we our club, we have a lot of resources that we will give student 1st time student razors. We have a shared Google Drive that we give them a bunch of resources. There's also Leer Dogs For Blind. They give us a huge manual that's like 200 pages long of, like, certain things that we have to teach the puppy and their expectations. We also have puppy counselors.
Beth:We had to visit once a month if we have a puppy. We had to go to, like, these puppy outings once a month with the puppy counselor, And they kind of help and, like, guide us in, like, the direction, like, help us with any problems or behavioral issues that they see are happening. We have a lot of help. Like, Leader Dogs for the Blind, they help out a lot. They give us resources as well.
Beth:So there's a lot of resources. You're not alone at all. So
Sarah:Plus within those puppy raiser meetings, it's kinda nice to get, like, a little bit of experience learning different things, like, more of the positive reinforcement side of things and seeing more of that firsthand before, like, jumping in to raise your own puppy. People do it either way though. You don't have to be in the club. Some people raise around campus without being in the club.
Tessa Kresch:Before joining this club and being puppy raisers and being around puppies a lot, have you raised a puppy before? My family has raised puppies before, so I've seen kind
Sarah:of that part, but nothing, like, super complicated. They know, like, a few basic commands like sit and like wait for their food, but nothing to like the level that our dogs are.
Ella:Yeah. My family grew up fostering dogs, so we would have like a bunch of different breeds from different shelters. So they would have different, I guess, behavioral like beginnings that we would have to kind of train up and build up so they can be adoptable. But like Sarah said, like nothing up to the leader dog standard I would say. But yeah, I do have experience with dogs in general.
Tessa Kresch:Totally. Did anything surprise you about puppies and like what it's like to train them?
Sarah:Honestly, the potty training aspect has been a lot easier. At least like my past 2 puppies, they've been pretty easy, especially with like sleeping through the night and then going potty in like the morning or evening. So I wasn't like always waking up in the middle of the night. That was kind of a surprise because I was like, oh no, it's gonna suck. I will say doing it when I have less stress going on, so like over the summer, definitely made that process a lot easier.
Sarah:I know some people got a puppy like during finals week and I was like, I have no idea how you did that because I would have just, like, given up on life. That was way too much to do. Yeah. But, yeah.
Beth:Yeah. I'm the opposite of Sarah. My first puppy and my second puppy, surprisingly, were both really bad at potty training. But my first puppy, come to find out, he had a medical problem, so that's why he was having issues with his potty training. My second puppy, she was first raised for 6 months within a prison facility, so they must have had different, potty training protocols or something that when she got to me, she was not fully housebroken, and we had some issues when I got her.
Beth:So, yeah, I had some weird potty training problems with my 2 puppies, but my 3rd, he was great. Like, he could he could go hours without needing to go to the bathroom. Wow. So which is what they need to be doing. So I was very impressed there.
Beth:But, yeah, it was a struggle for potty training for me. So
Tessa Kresch:Yeah. I've only I fostered a puppy a little while ago, and it really surprised me how much they go to the bathroom.
Sarah:Yeah. It's kinda surprising. I'm like, okay. This does not need to be our whole day.
Tessa Kresch:Literally. But their cuteness makes up for it.
Beth:Definitely. They're very smart. Leader dogs for the blind, they have their own breed stock, so they breed their own puppies and they, like, breed with good traits. So these puppies are really smart. Like, they come to us with already knowing how to sit at 8 weeks old.
Beth:Wow. So they are very smart dogs, and they take advantage of you because of that. They're, like, they're, like, I'm so smart. I'm smarter than you.
Tessa Kresch:So Exactly. They can read you.
Beth:Yes. So but it's amazing how smart they are. Yeah.
Tessa Kresch:I mean, they have to be. Yeah. So you talked about these breed stocks. What type of dogs are they usually?
Beth:They're golden retrievers and labs. They will, mix the golden retrievers and labs. They will breed them together to to make it like a mix, but they used to do German Shepherds, but they do not do that anymore because they had behavioral issues going back into the kennels. So they had to eliminate, that breed from their program.
Tessa Kresch:Do all of the dogs that you guys train make it to be leader dogs for the blind? Or
Sarah:Not all of them. It's a pretty low amount. So one of our dogs from last year, she's actually in the final stage of training. She's almost ready to be paired with a client. She's actually actually in a holdover stage.
Sarah:So, hopefully, in the next class, she'll get paired with a client. Whereas, a few of our other dogs last year got medically career changed. I had a puppy that got not medically, but he got career changed to be a leader dog dad, so he's a part of their breeding stock. And a few of the other dogs in the past are, like, leader dog moms or they have been career changed as pets, stuff like that.
Beth:Yeah. A lot of the issues they see with the career changes is usually medical, and then the next one's behavioral problems. So yeah. And not all of them make it, but they do go to good homes. I actually adopted my first one.
Beth:You did? Yes. When he got medically career changed really early, actually. He got it at, like, 10 months, and I ended up adopting him and, like, continued, like, somewhat his training, but kinda not. But, like, they don't all make it.
Beth:But if you can't keep it, they have a great adoption list that people love these dogs, like, every Exactly.
Tessa Kresch:What's not
Sarah:to love?
Beth:Yeah. So they apply to get a career change leader dog, puppy, and, yeah, they're great dogs for sure.
Tessa Kresch:Do you have any success stories or something that you'd wanna share?
Beth:One of the dogs previous years ago, she got pulled for the breed stock program and she's now a mom. She just had her first litter and I applied to get one of her puppies. So I'll get it at when it's older. So I applied for the older puppy. So I'll hopefully get one of her puppies in December.
Beth:So that was a success
Tessa Kresch:story. Our After she already knows how to sit and she's potty trained.
Beth:Yep. Our old puppy counselor, she had a lot of successes with her puppies. One of her puppies passed and became a guide dog for an individual in Taiwan, I believe. And there's also another individual here around Lansing, Tim. Her puppy passed and is now a leader dog.
Beth:So she has a lot of success with her puppies for sure. But I just know of, obviously, the mom and obviously Sarah's dad, Loki.
Sarah:Yeah. And then one of the our current puppy counselor, one of her puppies actually passed via working leader dog as well. I believe it was leader dog Remy.
Beth:Oh, yeah. I forgot about Remy. Also, another Razor also had her first puppy passed to a leader dog, Pesto. He's in Canada working
Tessa Kresch:love these names.
Beth:She was responsible for these. We can name the name of them. I love that. Yeah. Pesto's in Canada, I believe, working with a client there.
Beth:So there's been a lot of success within the MSU puppy raisers.
Sarah:Also kinda like a different career. So he was career changed, but Arlo became, like, a canine advocate for children testifying in, like, more of those complicated court, like, hearings. So he does a lot of, like, the emotional support side of things, which is pretty cool. Yeah. He even gets to wear, like, ties to work and stuff.
Tessa Kresch:I bet he's so popular around there.
Sarah:He is. I love his Facebook.
Tessa Kresch:Oh, my gosh. He has a Facebook. Would you say that there's any misconceptions that people have about guide dogs or or what you guys do as an organization?
Sarah:I don't know if it's really a misconception, but a lot of people love to pet a dog and they don't necessarily ask beforehand
Beth:Oh.
Sarah:Which kind of interferes with our training, but it also interferes with, like, the working dogs just because they're supposed to have specific tasks. And when someone random is coming up to them and kinda disrupting, like, their work, that's kind of very disruptive. Whether that's a class like a dog in a class or someone out in the world working. I know me personally just going to classes. I've seen several service animals, and I kinda have the information.
Sarah:Yeah. I'm just gonna ignore them. Let them do their thing. But I know not everyone, like, has that thought. Yeah.
Beth:I agree with Sarah on that. I've had a lot of problems with people coming up to my puppies and petting them without asking, and it really disrupts that training, and it really puts them the puppies in a really negative training experience. So I definitely agree with Sarah there.
Ella:I definitely think it has a lot to do with people's misconceptions or confusions about, like, the difference between service dogs, emotional support dogs, therapy dogs, and just, like, regular pets. So a lot of what our club does is kind of, like, emphasize those differences. I don't know how to
Beth:Yeah.
Tessa Kresch:Can you distinguish those differences for me?
Beth:Yeah. So a service dog provides a service. They are protected under the American Disability Act, so they can go anywhere with their person that they provide a service for. And you cannot tell them you can't come into my facility. They have to be with that person to give them a service.
Tessa Kresch:And a guide dog is one of those. Yes. Okay.
Beth:And then the therapy dogs, they just provide therapy in, like, a therapeutic setting. So, like, nursing homes, going to libraries, and, like, laying next to children who, like, read out loud. They can go into, like, specific public places. Like I mentioned nursing homes and libraries and other areas that I'm blanking on. But then there's the emotional support animals.
Beth:Those just provide like emotional like they're they are not protected under the American Disabilities Act. You cannot take them into public places. So that's, like, kind of a thing that is really a problem and it confuses people. And people who take their emotional support dogs within, like, the public spaces, they could interfere with a potential service dog and cause problems. So, yeah, we kinda educate our members the differences between those 3.
Tessa Kresch:Exactly. And that's really important. Could you tell me a little bit more about the services exactly that these service dogs are offering? What exactly are they doing for people who are visually impaired?
Sarah:Yeah. So they're basically guiding them through life, whether that's around different obstacles or distractions. Just helping them get safely from place to place and adding a very, like, irreplaceable tool into their life, which is really, really nice.
Tessa Kresch:And so when they're puppies, you're not supposed to pet them?
Sarah:So it's kind of up to the razor. You have to socialize them, but you also wanna make sure that you're not doing too much. So kind of like looking at your puppy, is it a good situation? Like, should they say hi to this person? Or, like, is it a nice area that you're able to have, like, a training situation?
Sarah:Are you able to say, hey, would you be willing to help me out and, like, help my puppy train? And going through, like, a gentle greeting, or is it something that you don't have the time to, like, settle down and go step by step? It's probably easier to say, no, not today. My puppy is not able to, like, say hi. But it's definitely very much like the razors, kinda like, opinion for the day, whether their puppy is up for it.
Sarah:And honestly, not all the time your puppy is, like, in the best space to say hi to friends.
Tessa Kresch:Right. Well, I learned that I shouldn't go pet every puppy I see in public.
Sarah:Yeah. I really struggle with it. I see a cute dog and I'm like, oh my gosh, I wanna go say hi. And then I'm like, wait, Sarah, calm down. You can't say
Tessa Kresch:hi to everyone. You have to ask first. Yeah.
Sarah:It's it's kind of a struggle. We're getting through it, though.
Tessa Kresch:Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's gonna be hard for me to fight back. But now that I've talked to you, I bet that I'm going to be seeing
Beth:these puppies everywhere. And for anybody who's
Tessa Kresch:interested in joining the club, everywhere. And for anybody who's interested in joining the club or becoming a puppy raiser, what steps should they take?
Ella:Well, first of all, we have our Instagram and Facebooks that we post a lot of puppy updates, meeting information, general information about our club, pictures of our fundraisers and stuff. So if you're interested in more of what we do and what you can do to help us, you can go and check out those pages.
Tessa Kresch:What is the Instagram?
Ella:I think it's just atmsuleardogclub.
Tessa Kresch:And by any chance, will there be a picture of those new puppies posted?
Ella:Oh for sure.
Sarah:Yes, there will be.
Tessa Kresch:Okay fantastic.
Sarah:I'm really hoping we'll get that pup date out soon.
Tessa Kresch:Pupdate, I love that.
Sarah:We We do pup dates every single month, so you can follow along with all the puppies that are on campus. And even some of, like, the puppies that are in training, we do pup dates on them as well.
Beth:And the puppies have their own Instagram pages. Like, we they get tagged in our club Instagram, and you can go follow the puppies.
Sarah:Oh, my gosh. I know. We have quite a few. We have, like, future leader dog Thor. Bear also has an Instagram.
Sarah:June has an Instagram. Peter dog dad, Loki also has an Instagram page, I know future leader dog. Delta also has a page, kind of depends.
Tessa Kresch:Yeah. Are there any upcoming events or initiatives that you guys have that you wanna highlight?
Sarah:So in November, we're gonna have a blanket sale. So that'll be done more on the virtual side of things, but you can order a blanket, and then that'll also go go towards our club funds and helping support our student raisers. We're also gonna have another fundraiser, and I believe November, December, where you can take pictures with Santa Claus and the puppies. So that's pretty fun. Yeah.
Sarah:That'll be around Anthony Hall. Be on the lookout for our Instagram with any updates with either of those fundraisers or going to the club meetings as well. We'll have updates.
Tessa Kresch:Do you have any plans for the future of the organization?
Ella:We're definitely thinking of having more fundraisers, probably, like, at least one every month in the upcoming semesters.
Sarah:We also just want to encourage more people to puppy raise and like support them through that decision and any support that they need like applying or during the process of raising their puppy.
Beth:And I think in the spring, our club is gonna try to organize a campus buddies thing so our general members could, like, sign up to, like, watch one of the future Leer dogs on campus if the razor is, like, in a lab class that they can't bring the puppy to. Oh, yeah. We're gonna yeah. So we're gonna try to hopefully organize that for the spring, and hopefully, it will continue on into the previous years after we graduate. So very exciting.
Tessa Kresch:For sure! And do you have any advice for someone who might be interested in becoming a puppy raiser but doesn't really know if they can commit?
Sarah:I definitely recommend going to the puppy raiser meetings. I know that was said a lot, but also asking any of the puppy raisers within the club. So basically, our whole entire e board minus a few are puppy raisers. So we are open to any questions. Also, reaching out to our Instagram or any of those puppies' Instagrams.
Sarah:Just more curiosity, like, hey, what's the day to day commitment? Any more, like, personal questions to get more experience about that?
Beth:Also, if you have a friend, you can co raise together. So, yes, there's that co raising opportunity there. So you can split the tasks between 2 of you and make it a lot easier on yourselves.
Tessa Kresch:Exactly. Now I need to talk to my roommate when I get home. And that's it for today's episode. Thank you to everyone who's involved in the making of this podcast. If you like what you've heard, come back next week.
Tessa Kresch:I'm Tessa Creche. You've been listening to
Beth:Exposure.
Tessa Kresch:This was this week's episode of Exposure. Keep in mind that the views and opinions discussed on exposure are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect those of the staff at impact 89fm. If you're interested in going back and listening to our archive of stories, feel free to check out our website at impact89fmdot org. And of course, if you're interested in what's going on next week, you can tune back in and we'll see you back here. You've been listening to Exposure.