Kadin Knowles’ puppy, Leone, posing in front of a fountain.
Photo by Irena Mesa
By Irena Mesa
The task of raising a puppy to one day become a service dog is many things, but easy is not one of them.
A labrador retriever’s high energy can be a challenge for even the most experienced raisers. The commitment isn’t for everyone, even with the added allure of an adorable puppy.
It didn’t scare Erin Hays, Kadin Knowles, and Libby Hughes, who decided to join the Puppy Love Club and raise a puppy all while balancing classes at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
Hughes, a sophomore business major and a new puppy raiser, said she expects having her puppy Felicity to help her with her classes.
“Felicity’s previous raiser is a teacher, and she liked to take Felicity with her to class. So, I know she’ll want to go to class with me, and that will in turn make me a little bit more excited to go to class,” Hughes said.
But, aiding in her academics wasn’t the only thing that Hughes gained from joining the Puppy Love Club on campus.
“I worked at a gym in Largo my first year and I wasn’t on campus too often, and I never really socialized. Getting to know people in the club has helped me be more connected on campus,” Hughes said, “The dogs are great, and the people are great.”
Knowles echoed the sentiment, as the digital communications and multimedia journalism senior transferred to USF last year and missed a lot of the connections she would have had if she had started at the campus as a freshman. The Puppy Love Club was the club she decided to join to get more involved both on and off campus, and she has been raising her puppy Leone for four months.
“I loved being able to go to the [Lighthouse of Pinellas] and the fire station. I would have never done that on my own, so it was an awesome opportunity to do it with Leone and the other raisers, and a good opportunity to meet the firefighters and Lighthouse staff,” Knowles said.
For Hays, a recent USF St. Petersburg graduate, puppy raising is what guided her to her current career with Dogs Inc. as an advisor that oversees a few regional groups of puppy raisers.
“It wasn’t my number one plan to work with Dogs Inc., but when I was close to graduation, I was talking with my advisor, and it made me realize that I could see myself doing that for other people,” Hays said.
Even though Knowles doesn’t plan on changing her career path, she did say that puppy-raising has helped her feel more confident as she enters the working world.
“It’s definitely helped me develop my time management skills and my organizational skills which I think are applicable in any career,” Knowles said. “If anything, raising has strengthened my passion and love for animals.”
Hays was also thankful for the skills that puppy-raising helped her to develop and thinks student puppy raisers deserve more credit for what they do.
“Even within the Dogs Inc. community, people look down on college raisers. It’s not a majority, but some people see 20-somethings who they think don’t take it seriously and are just in it for a cute puppy,” Hays said. “College students are adults and know the commitment. Sometimes, dogs raised by college students turn out better than dogs raised by people in full-time jobs because of the experiences they get on campus.”
