By Ali G.

The Dog Corps at the Family Foundation School is definitely one of our most unique and exciting programs. The students who participate in the Dog Corps work almost every day, training dogs for obedience and participation in real search and rescue missions with trainers Rita Argiros and Jenn Culver. The boys involved certainly sing the program’s praises.

“Dog Corps taught me how to love again” says LucasV-P, a senior and one of the three Dog Corps work-studies.

Junior Adam B. is another of the Dog Corps work-studies, and he credits the experiences he’s had in the dog-training program with having a huge positive effect on his recovery. I talked to Adam about the newest additions to the Dog Corp, two German Shepard puppies named Soren and Jordis, who will be trained to do searches and other missions.

Work-study Dan D. says “I love working with dogs, and these new puppies have been an amazing learning opportunity for me”

Adam B. has been particularly affected by his experiencing working with the new dogs.

“As a result of being in Dog Corps, I’ve decided to continue with K-9 Search and Rescue throughout the rest of my life,” says Adam “Since I’ve been in Dog Corps, I’ve only been able to experience working with adult dogs and what they do, but I’ve never been able to fully understand the process that it takes to get to that point. Now that the puppies are here and getting trained into what I’ve observed with the adult dogs, I’ll be able to carry my experiences now into training the puppy I’ll have one day”

The work that Dog Corps students do is exceptional in the sense that they are able to use the skills they learn to help the animals, themselves and their community.