SAN ANTONIO — Is there really a difference between training horses and dogs? Hannah Pettit can tell you all about that. She rides horses competitively. The 17 year old also trains puppies for the visually impaired.
“I like working with dogs,” Pettit said. “I started when I was a kid when we got our second rescue dog from the Animal Defense League.”
Pettit, who had been riding horses since she was four, started to transfer some of those skills in training her dog. That evolved into begging her mother to let her help raise puppies for the blind. After two years of daughterly pleading, her mom gave in.
She got her first puppy named Jacinto. Pettit admits she was overwhelmed but remained committed. The teen said she didn’t want to mess the dog up. “He was an easy puppy,” she said.
Pettit became one of the youngest members of Guide Dogs for the Blind.
“We teach them to sit, stand, stay, wait, okay, to relieve on command, loose leash walking and getting them out in public,” Pettit said. “So that they’re ready when they’re a guide dog.”
Portugal is Pettit’s latest puppy. He’s her third. She gets to keep the dogs for around a year. Letting them go is emotional, but the dogs are meant to ease the lives of the visually impaired.
“Hannah is caring, compassionate, responsible,” Wendy Riggs said. “She loves what she does and she’s good at it.”
Riggs is an unappointed mentor to Pettit. She said Pettit fits right in with the mostly adult club of guide dog trainers. “We have all taken her under our wing and tried to help her along,” Riggs said. “In many ways, she’s surpassed us.”
Pettit has had the opportunity to reunite with her first dog, Jacinto, and his owner. In fact, they went on vacation together.
For the pup-training teen, this experience just happens to fall into her passion. She wants to train guide dogs professionally. The young animal lover just adores horses and dogs. The benefit is her calling helps others
“I get reminded everyday by random people---thank you for doing this,” she said.
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