Catherine Rupp wasn’t the most likely person to wind up training puppies to become service dogs.
For one thing, growing up, she wasn’t a dog lover, since her family didn’t keep them as pets. She discovered that canines had lovable possibilities, however, when she and her husband, moved to Elmhurst and bought the first of three Australian Shepherds.
Then, following the example of her younger sister, Christine McHenry of Carol Stream, who was involved in a dog therapy program at Loyola Hospital, Rupp did the same at Elmhurst Hospital with two of her pets certified as therapy dogs by the national organization Pet Partners. That was nine years ago and Rupp has found the experience endlessly rewarding.
“We would just go room to room in Elmhurst Hospital and visit patients and cheer them up,” she said. “It was really an eye-opening experience for me, because it was the first time I’d seen how much of a positive impact a dog can have on a person, right away.
“Sick people in their hospital beds would suddenly become happy and cheerful and conversational. It often brought me to tears over the years.”
When her Aussies began to age out of the program, she and her husband decided to raise another puppy — but this time with a difference.
“My sister had been talking about how great service dogs are and how much they help people,” she recalled. “So I decided volunteer to raise a service dog. Though I had no idea what that would entail.”
Three months later, she and her husband received their first specially bred Labrador puppy from the California company Canine Companions “and there’s been no turning back.”
Rupp takes charge of the puppies — usually Labs or Golden Retrievers or a mix of the two — and began teaching them 30 commands over a period of 18 months. She’s currently working with her fourth young pupil, teaching it to do remarkable things like lie still under tables in restaurants, place its front paws in her lap for grooming or to receive a collar from people in wheelchairs, even to help with store transactions by placing its paws on a counter with cash or credit cards in a bag — and retrieving it later.
“I often tell people it’s almost like cheating because Canine Companions breeds such exceptional dogs,” she said. “They’re extremely calm, extremely willing to work, very friendly and just a dream to have around.”
Though she admits they do, also, have the usual “goofy puppy issues.”
“It’s not like they come to you and they don’t pee in your house,” she said with a laugh.
Nonetheless, after 18 months, when it’s time to take the pups to Ohio for their last few months of training with professionals, where they learn another 10 commands, she always finds it difficult to part with them.
“I believed that wasn’t going to be a problem for me, because I wasn’t even all that fond of Labs in the beginning,” she said. “But, oh my gosh, that was crazy talk.
“It’s always hard, at first, until you remember how skilled these dogs are and how much help they’re going to be to someone. Then you feel it’s been a privilege just to be part of the process. After a while, you realize somebody else needs that dog much, much more.”