Many students may have noticed the increase of dogs on campus. However, not many know that these dogs are specially trained for people with disabilities. Pawistism offers a way for kids with autism to have a dog that provides safety and compassion due to special training. The special training involves the dogs learning how to show support for kids with autism. These service dogs are trained by both Lakeland students and professional trainers off campus. This semester, the Pawisitm program, is lucky to have three new student trainers to help their cause: Bella Westerholm, Liv Swenson, and Tana Zdroik.
A veteran of this program is Ben Busalacchi, a senior at Lakeland. Busalacchi is also involved on the men’s volleyball team as well as the billiards club on campus. Busalacchi has been a part of Pawisitsm for the past two years. When dealing with dogs who have to help kids with autism, many programs have to have programs to go through to get certified to do such things. But if students want to train with dogs they do not have to. “The Co-Raisers do not have to get certified. The skills they will use will be taught at pit training sessions or the lead of Pawsitism will inform them of any specific thing that might be needed.” This means if students want to join now, they do not need to get certified to train these dogs. “To sign up to be a co-raiser they must be a part of the club and apply through the application process to be a candidate for being a co-raiser” as stated by Ben. By being able to sign up you can become a co-raiser, which is how you would be able to train these dogs.
Like most clubs on campus, there are specific rules and guidelines that members of Pawisitsim must follow. “There is list of rules and guidelines that Lakeland has agreed upon that we follow and Pawsitism has specific rules and guidelines that we must follow for dogs. Each co-raiser is given a copy of these guidelines. And members of the club must sign and agree to these guidelines and rules also since they also interact with the dogs on campus.” The trainers cannot just take the dogs and have them as their personal pet. While students can house the dogs, the dogs still must follow all the trainers’ commands as it is to prepare them when the dog goes to a family. “The current co-raisers on campus, Bella Westerholm, Liv Swenson, and Tana Zdroik are the current co-raisers now with another round of applications going out for the next 2 dogs coming on campus in the spring.” With the spring semester coming up, Pawistism is looking for new trainers to take care of and train the new dogs.
Having such a grateful organization on campus is a great cause for the community. Students looking to get involved in the organization should contact Ben Busalacchi.
