Puppy Love In The Mods takes A Valiant Turn For The Cuter

For most students, it takes a good nine months to pack on the Freshman 15, and even then, mothers will scoff and push vegetables at their corpulent coeds upon their return home for the holidays. However, for one brand new member of the Boston College community, his "parent" has been nothing but delighted at the fact that he is growing by leaps and bounds (and several pounds) on a weekly basis.

Valiant (affectionately known about campus as "Vallie"), a 12-week-old yellow lab who calls Mod 16A home, is being raised by current occupant Brittany Baker, A&S '11, to eventually become a seeing eye dog for the blind.  In his one short month at BC, Vallie has not only grown significantly in size, but made more friends and attracted more notoriety than most students can ever dream to attain during four full years at BC. His reputation as the mysterious "Mod Puppy" precedes him, as the majority of students wonder how Baker and her friends were able to secure such an adorable, envy-inspiring roommate.

For Baker, it was no easy task. Inspired by one of her friends at a different college who had participated in a similar program, Baker searched the Boston area for programs until she found Guiding Eyes. "It's on a completely volunteer basis," she said, wrestling a squeaky toy from Vallie's mouth. "I had to take classes with them this summer to learn their method of training and then they placed me with a dog."

Though establishing a relationship with Guiding Eyes required just an online application, getting Vallie's presence on campus approved became its own process of meeting with the Office of Residential Life (ResLife) and convincing them that the program would be beneficial to the University. "At first they were very reluctant because they've never had it done before so I had to go meet with a bunch of people. The main person I worked with was George Arey," she said. "Arey had to get it checked by every department here, including the legal department, as they all had to look at it from their own angle of liability."

The agreement currently stands as a "test run," with Baker required to meet with ResLife once a month. "At the end of the year, I'll be working with all the deans in ResLife to see if we can make it an actual policy," Baker said. "We haven't gotten into details yet, but they're trying to make it an institutional policy so that people can do more things like this."

"Vallie also has to wear a little bandana when he's walking around campus so people know he's in training," Baker said. "And I am supposed to do things with BC to educate everyone about the program and offer general information about service dogs."

To make sure that Vallie develops the skills he will need to lead a blind person one day, Baker takes him to class in Needham every other week. "We practice obedience, house training and manners at class. And then he is tested on how well he is paying attention to the handler versus the outside world," she said. "On the weeks that I don't go to class, they send a representative to see how he's doing and acclimating to this lifestyle."

As these Guiding Eyes trainers remain closely involved in Vallie's rearing throughout his time with Baker, it is virtually guaranteed that he will meet the requirements to eventually be sent to "puppy college" and become a seeing eye dog.

As a resident of the Mods, Vallie is at no loss for opportunities to build his social skills. The issue lies in how he socializes, which is where Baker's training is critical. "He needs to be socialized in every circumstance, so he's confident in any situation that he might be in with a  blind person, but he also has to be very observant and not distracted," Baker said. "There's general house rules — like he can't sit on the furniture — because when he's with a blind person, they'll have to leave him in a certain place and be sure he'll stay until they come back."

Baker said that most people are good at asking before they pet him when they walk around campus, which she appreciates. But, due to her specialized training, she can only let certain people care for Vallie when she's unable to. "The organization has a whole group of sitters, and he can only be sat for by someone that is trained," she said.

On the weekends, Vallie gets an extra dose of social training, as the Mods fill with Superfans and tailgating. "He's great with loud noises, so he's fine on the weekends," Baker said. "On game days, it's a little difficult because he has to be taken out every few hours. When I do take him out, people will literally run out of Mods saying, ‘I was waiting for you to come out!'"

The highly social environment offered by living on a college campus is part of what made Baker a perfect candidate for raising Vallie. And in terms of making friends and meeting new people, he's been incredibly successful. "It's funny because everyone knows his name and we will be walking around and people will say, ‘Hi Vallie!' and they don't even know me," Baker said.

Baker's time with Vallie will span a year and a half, after which he will return to the kennel and be trained in the skills necessary for the day-to-day life of leading a blind person. "With all of the training and effort this organization puts into him, he'll be worth $45,000," Baker said. But for now, he's just a puppy, learning right from wrong, what to bite, and when to bark. "He's obviously bred for intelligence and confidence, but he's still just a puppy and just knows, ‘My teeth hurt and I'm going to bite you.' And that's the point of my training, to teach him self-control," she said.

Baker, like the majority of the campus, hopes that after this year spent training the Mods' most popular housemate, the program will be deemed a success and the opportunity will be available for students in years to come. n