Kane County Board Room Doubles As Classroom For Service Dog

Geneva IL

10 February, 2022

12:50 PM

Description

GENEVA, IL — For the next few months, the Kane County Board Room is doubling as a classroom for a 4-month-old Labradoodle. Gremlin is training to become a service dog to assist people who have disabilities with everyday activities. The puppy, whose breed is a mix of a poodle and Labrador, has been paired to train with Blair Peters, who works with the Kane County Information Technology Department. Outside work, Peters volunteers with nonprofit VIP Service Dog Foundation, which is how he was connected with Gremlin. VIP, which stands for Very Important Pooch, matches service and coordinator dogs with people within the Chicago metro area who are physically and developmentally disabled. "I love dogs and decided to volunteer with the foundation to help give someone part of their independence back," Peters said in a statement. To help train dogs, volunteers, including Peters, have to be fully trained on how to do it. They teach service dogs basic obedience skills in addition to specialized training. "A service dog learns to perform at least two custom tasks to help an individual mitigate their disability," VIP Founder and President Donna Akers said in a statement. To successfully train a service dog, they have to learn to ignore everyone around them but their handler. They wear vests to let people know they're service dogs or in a specialized training program, but this doesn't stop passersby from having the urge to pet them. "Because Gremlin is such a sweet dog, people are constantly coming up to us to pet him," Peters said. "I have to tell them that Gremlin is working and cannot be distracted." Within the Kane County government, Peters is the behind-the-scenes person who gives the public access to the Kane County Board's daily decision-making activities. In order to bring Gremlin with him to Kane County Board meetings, which take place within the government center in Geneva, Peters had to get permission from Board members. The goal, according to a news release, is to expand Gremlin's training. "The boardroom is a large public space with lots of people talking, walking around and there are lots of distractions like doors closing, ringing cell phones and chairs moving," Peters said. "The board members were happy to welcome Gremlin and gave their OK to have him work alongside me."