Conversations with Collar Scholars

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Collar Scholars.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Collar Scholars at the University of Colorado is a student organization dedicated to raising and training future service dogs for Canine Companions. 

As part of our mission, we aim to increase awareness and respect for assistance dog teams, educate the CU community about Canine Companions and service dog etiquette, and advocate for service animals working on campus. Our organization meets several times per month to educate our members on Canine Companions’ mission and goals, proper handling and training techniques, as well as other skills such as teamwork, communication, education, and advocacy. 

Canine Companions is a national non-profit organization that provides service dogs to children, adults, and veterans with disabilities, as well as professionals working in visitation, healthcare, and education settings. A fully trained service dog is worth roughly $50,000; however, Canine Companions provides these dogs to individuals completely free of charge through the support of volunteers, donors, and the community. Although CU Collar Scholars is specifically affiliated with Canine Companions, all service dog teams and puppies in training are welcome to join our organization. 

CU Collar Scholars was founded in the Spring of 2020 by Nicole Kirk. In our 4 years of operation, our club has raised 7 puppies on the CU Boulder campus. Our first puppy, Daryn, currently works as a Breeder for Guide Dogs for the Blind, and our most recent graduate, Sunflower, is proudly serving our community as a Facility Dog! We currently have three puppies in training on campus and are thrilled to see what paths they choose moving forward! 

Our organization is made up of approximately 180 students who all serve in one of our three main positions: general member, puppy sitter, or puppy raiser. CU Collar Scholars general members attend meetings and events to help support the club and its mission. 

Puppy sitters are volunteers who go through regular training and recertification classes to handle and care for Canine Companions’ dogs. Our puppy sitters regularly assist local puppy raisers and Canine companion graduates by providing free, reliable care for their service animals and puppies in training. Our puppy raisers are volunteers who agree to raise and train a future Canine Companions service dog for 12-18 months. These students selflessly commit to providing veterinary care, food, toys, and all other dog needs using their funds. 

CU Collar Scholars works to support our volunteer puppy raisers through our fundraising efforts, donation requests, and university funding. In the Spring of 2023, CU Collar Scholars started a Puppy Pantry on campus that stores food, toys, leashes, grooming supplies, and other vital items for our puppy raisers to use free of charge. This pantry has been vital to supporting our raisers and making college puppy raising more accessible to our members. 

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Starting any new organization comes with its fair share of challenges. 

Throughout our time at CU, Collar Scholars has had to navigate issues such as gaining access for our puppies on campus, obtaining funding to support our puppies and volunteers, and working with CU’s Disability Services team to educate professors and university administrators on public access rights and general service dog etiquette. We truly could not do what we do without the support of the Disability Services team! 

While these have been the biggest struggles we have faced, CU Collar Scholars and our student volunteers are constantly experiencing smaller challenges on campus. These challenges include professors attempting to bar our puppies from attending classes, students and other members of the community bringing pets into campus buildings, and certain university departments refusing our dogs access to their facilities. 

While these situations can be frustrating, we believe they are most often due to a simple lack of education. Because of this, we make it a large part of our mission to educate our community about assistance dog teams, public access rights, and how service dogs differ from therapy dogs and emotional support animals. 

It is likely that these challenges will never go away, but we believe that any opportunity for us to educate our community is a step in the right direction. 

I appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
It truly takes a village to raise and train a puppy. Like Canine Companions, CU Collar Scholars could not function without the dedicated support of our student volunteers. While raising a puppy might not seem like a huge task, CU Collar Scholars could not operate without the collaborative efforts of our puppy raisers, puppy sitters, and general members. 

Something amazing about this program is that all of our members, regardless of their position or level of training, get to work together to support each dog. None of our members are required to have any previous experience with dogs or dog training, which allows us to build a community of people from various backgrounds and experiences. Additionally, because our organization is open to undergraduate and graduate students from any course of study, we offer our members the unique opportunity to meet and collaborate with people outside of their field. 

Because our members join us with varying levels of exposure to dogs, our organization works hard to offer as much education as possible to our volunteers. To begin this education process, we offer a free comprehensive series of three training classes to students interested in becoming puppy sitters or raisers. These classes cover skills ranging from the proper use of a leash to teaching a dog how to navigate a world full of distractions. 

Our courses also cover all of the basic puppy safety information that any dog handler should know. Members interested in puppy raising are able to continue their education by attending twice monthly puppy raiser classes, both on and off campus. These classes are designed to help puppy raisers practice a lot of the key skills required to help their puppies succeed as service dogs. Canine Companions puppy raiser classes are also unique because they offer students the opportunity to meet puppy raisers outside of our club and work directly with Canine Companions’ staff. 

Further support is offered to our puppy raisers through the puppy raiser mentorship program. To make puppy raising easier and more accessible to people from all backgrounds, every new puppy raiser gets paired with an experienced puppy raiser mentor who is available to offer advice and answer any questions the new raiser may have. 

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
We could not have gotten to where we are today without the selflessness and dedication of our student volunteers, and the support of Canine Companions and the University of Colorado’s Disability Services team. 

Some specific individuals who have made an impact on our organization include our founder, Nicole Kirk, who has always been an excellent mentor to our puppy raisers and executive team; Nick Kemp, the President of Canine Companions’ Rocky Mountain Chapter, who has supported all of our work with the University; Stephanie Yocum, the puppy program manager for Canine Companions’ Southwest Region, for her incredible support of our college raisers; and all of the donors who help support our raisers through funds and physical donations. 

Together, all of these individuals have worked tirelessly to help us spread our mission and set our organization up for success. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://buffpups8.wixsite.com/cuboulder
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collar_scholars_boulder/?igsh=MTNtd2t0ZGlzb3B3ag%3D%3D
• Email: buffpups@colorado.edu
• Other: canine.org