UMD Students Raise Future Guide and Service Dogs

The University of Maryland is one of many stops for the dogs in the Guide Dog Foundation program, as they work their way from birth to meeting their handlers, accumulating a $50,000 price tag. 

The Guide Dog Foundation partners with clubs at college campuses like Terps Raising Pups to socialize dogs before they are formally trained, according to Lesly Landaverde, a senior criminal justice and family science major at UMD who has raised four dogs with the program since 2022. 

A dog in the Terps Raising Pups program is bred in Long Island, New York, where the Guide Dog Foundation’s main campus is. According to Landaverde, here, the puppies are born, raised for their first few weeks, and then brought back for formal training and handler placement after being with a raiser.

At around 12 weeks old, the dog is transported to the University of Maryland and placed with a pair of student raisers. 

“Our [the raiser’s] main job is to really socialize and just teach foundational skills,” Landaverde said. This includes desensitizing the dog to activities such as grooming or loud public spaces, like a university. 

Student volunteers in Terps Raising Pups raise service and guide dogs. 

“Usually, first-time raisers get a guide dog,” Landaverde said. The dogs are taught skills such as “sit,” “lie down” and “leave it.”

Guide dogs help visually impaired individuals, and the organization partners with America’s Vet Dogs to provide service dogs for “veterans, active-duty service members, and first responders with disabilities.”

Dogs on the American Vet Dog track are usually placed with second-time raisers and taught more advanced PTSD skills, according to Landaverde. 

The Guide Dog Foundation website states, $50,000 is the cost to “breed, raise, train, and place one guide or service dog.” The handler is the person in need of a service dog, and this entire process is free for them. 

Student raisers are financially responsible for their dog’s food, which is sometimes covered by Terps Raising Pups’ fundraising efforts. 

The dogs stay with their raisers from 10 to 15 months, then go to the main campus in New York for formal training with a paid certified instructor. 

“It always hurts to say goodbye to them,” Landaverde said, adding that getting attached is easy. 

However, they do keep in touch. The student raisers receive updates when their dog moves on to formal training. 

“Seeing them accomplish so much more is definitely what makes it worth it,” Landaverde said.

• guide dog
• service dog
• volunteer