When Maisie Dorwart rides the bus in Philadelphia, her traveling companion may slobber just a little bit, but he's working very hard to be a good boy.
Maisie, a 2019 graduate of Manheim Central High School, is a graduate student at Temple University, where she's pursuing a master's degree in speech-language pathology. She rides SEPTA, attends class and runs errands with Cyprus, a 6-month-old black Labrador/golden retriever mix she's working with through Canine Companions. As a puppy raiser, Maisie spends time helping Cyprus get comfortable in a variety of situations, preparing him for the day he becomes a full-time service dog.
"I am socializing him," Maisie said. I bring him to my classes. I bring him to class and everyone's like, 'Can Cyprus sit with me today?' It's been really cool to see everyone in my classes fully embrace him and to see my professors get so excited. If I have an exam in a class, I won't bring him and they're like, 'Where is he?'"
Canine Companions is the country's first and largest service dog organization serving adults, children and veterans with disabilities free of charge. Maisie was paired with Cyprus in October, and he'll spend 18 months with her before he returns to the Canine Companions' northeast regional training center in Medford, N.Y., where he'll work with professional instructors to learn commands necessary to serve a person with disabilities.
"I work with Cyprus on basic commands like 'sit,' 'down' and 'up,'" Maisie said, noting that she takes him to puppy classes at the Philadelphia chapter of Canine Companions twice a month. When he goes to Medford, he'll spend six to nine months learning 40-plus commands working with a professional trainer." At the end of his training, Cyprus will be able to open and close doors, turn lights on and off, retrieve dropped items and even pull a manual wheelchair.
Maisie, the daughter of Bob and Kerry Dorwart of Manheim, grew up with a dog as a pet. When she learned about Canine Companions, she knew she wanted to be a puppy raiser. She waited until she finished college and moved out on her own in an apartment in Philadelphia, where she has the time and space to devote to Cyprus.
She knows giving Cyprus up in February of next year will be tough, but she's excited to think about how he'll make a difference in someone's life.
She plans to receive updates on how Cyprus is faring, and she's looking forward to continuing to serve as a puppy raiser with other dogs.
"I think about what Cyprus will do for someone's life in the future and the benefits of a service dog for someone who has signed up for one with Canine Companions," she said, noting that Canine Companions covers the cost - upward of $50,000 - of preparing a dog for service. "Saying goodbye to Cyprus is going to be one of the hardest things I've done, but when he graduates and he's with his person, I know that will be very rewarding."
For more information on Canine Companions, visit https://canine.org.
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