POLAND — Poland Regional High School has seven newcomers who will attend classes full time, join after-school activities and, eventually, go off to college. 

As long as they sit, stay and don’t bark.  

Starting this fall, the high school will host seven service-dogs-in-training. The six puppies and one adult dog will be the constant companions of seven students who will care for and train them for more than a year. At the end of training, the service dogs will be given to disabled college students.   

The program, College Bound Canines, was the brainchild of Poland Regional junior Emily Buell.

“It’s going to give (college students) more independence. It’s going to help them out all the way through the rest of their dogs’ life. It’ll open doors for them in college,” she said, choking back tears. “It’ll make a difference in somebody’s life in a really, really positive way.”

Buell, 17, helped train service dogs at her old high school in Arizona. When she and her family moved to Maine, she hoped to resume her work here. But her new school, Poland Regional, didn’t offer such a service dog training program. 

So she started one.

College Bound Canines pairs high-schoolers with puppies that need training, then pairs those trained dogs with disabled students who need the assistance a dog can provide. For a year-and-a-half, the high-schoolers spend all day, every day with their puppies, teaching them how to act in public places and training them to obey both basic commands and to complete the sophisticated tasks required of service animals, such as picking up a dropped pen or opening a kitchen cabinet.

Because the dogs will constantly be at the side of their permanent owners, they must also constantly be at the side of their young trainers. That means joining the high-schoolers in class, following them to after-school activities and even going with them to the mall or out on dates. Only potentially dangerous places — like the football field during a game — will be off limits to them.

After about a year, College Bound Canines will begin accepting applications from disabled students who need a service dog. Dogs will then be trained with skills specific to their new owners’ needs. 

Although just 17, Buell believes she can spearhead the program. The Arizona program taught her well, she said, and her parents are backing her up. So far, she has a good start.

Buell got school leaders’ approval to begin the program and to count student participation toward the school’s co-curricular requirements. While there are allergy and other issues to keep in mind, Principal Carri Medd said the school is “cautiously moving forward.”

Buell brought her own dog into the school as a month-long trial and it worked out well, Medd said. She hopes seven dogs and a full College Bound Canines program will work just as well.  

“It would fill a need, fill a hole for kids who are looking for ways to be connected with school,” Medd said. “And it’s a service to people in the community. There’s a larger purpose to it.”

College Bound Canines is funded through donations, with Buell’s parents paying for whatever donations haven’t covered. And there have been a lot of expenses donations haven’t covered. The dogs themselves — one mixed-breed from a local animal shelter and five border collies and English setters from breeders — cost more than $1,300.

Buell’s father said the family is happy to help. 

“We have the same passion she does,” Jerry Buell said.

Six Poland students got their puppies and began training them Friday. A seventh, a student with disabilities, is training her family dog in preparation to bring the dog with her to college.  

Katie Young, one of the puppy raisers, said she’s looking forward to “the whole journey,” though she imagines it will be difficult to give up the puppy she’ll have raised for a year and a half.

“It’ll be hard, but it’s going for a good cause,” she said.

To make a donation to the College Bound Canines program, visit www.collegeboundcanines.com.

Have an idea for a pet feature? Contact Lindsay Tice at 689-2854 or e-mail her at ltice@sunjournal.com

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