newsminer.com

Photo by Sam Harrel

Tail waving high, an extra North Pole High School graduate affectionately known as “Shep,” trotted through commencement ceremonies Thursday evening under the guiding lead of graduating senior Hannah Beck.

And like his mistress, Shep, short for Shepard, will soon go on to higher education — to become a guide dog.

“He’ll be finishing up in June,” said Beck, who plans to attend Shep’s graduation at Guide Dogs of the Desert in Palm Springs, Calif.

The black and tan Labrador retriever has been Beck’s constant companion for the past 19 months.

“He’s gone to school with me every single day I’ve gone,” Beck said.

“I’ve given him his K-12 education. “He’ll get six more months of formal training, and then he’ll get a job.”

Beck picked up Shep when he was just 7 weeks old, shortly after training another black Labrador Guide Dog puppy named “KZ.”

Shep is the third guide-dog puppy in training Beck has worked with.

The first, Shiloh, a Golden Retriever, whose care and training she took on as a student at North Pole Middle School, is now a guide dog for a blind lawyer in Massachusetts.

KZ didn’t make the cut for guide dog training but is eligible for another service dog job, such as search and rescue, wheelchair assistance, canine service or drug search.

Beck feels confident that Shep has what it takes to be a personal guide dog.

“He’s fantastic,” she said. “He’s always focused, always on the job.”

The most trying part of training a guide dog, Beck explained, is dealing with people who try to pet, feed or distract the dog when he has his blue working jacket on.

Beck has only praise for her senior classmates’ understanding and help throughout Shep’s training.

“My entire senior class has been my legion of babysitters,” she said. “They all love him.”

Beck estimates she has put 40,000 plus volunteer hours caring for and training the three guide dog puppies since she first took on Shiloh in 2003. In addition to providing training, guide dog puppy trainers also pay for their charges’ upkeep, food and veterinary bills.

Working with guide-dog puppies in training has become a family tradition in the Beck family.

Hannah’s older sister, Robyn, trained a puppy when she, too, was a student at North Pole High School. Hannah’s mother, Deborah, will be picking up a puppy to train when Shep is returned to California in June for his official canine graduation ceremony.

As for Hannah, she is taking a year off from training guide dog pups to start her freshman year at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

But she fully intends to train one more guide-dog puppy after getting used to campus life.

“My goal has always been to train four puppies,” she said. “It seems like an OK number.”