Big Dawg on Campus

As UGA students adjust back to life on campus, Delta Gamma’s Hannah Weeg is adjusting to life as a mom. On August 6th, Hannah picked up Binks, a future guide dog that she will be raising for the next year and a half. Hannah has been working with the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind for about a year now. “Because our philanthropy is Service for Sight, Delta Gamma is the only sorority on campus that lets girls live in the house and raise a guide dog,” Hannah said. “Only one sophomore each year gets to live in the house with a GDF puppy so when I heard about the opportunity I applied right away.”

In the three weeks she has been with Hannah, Binks has grown by leaps and strides in the basics of guide dog training. Together the two have been hard at work; Binks is potty-trained, knows ‘sit’, ‘down’, ‘stay’, and ‘leave it’, all important commands that all guide dogs in training must know. “The early part of their training is all about eliminating distractions and increasing obedience. ‘Leave it’ is important because it teaches the puppy to refocus his/her attention from the distraction back to the raiser,” Hannah explained. As they grow as a team, Hannah will go on to teach Binks increasingly complicated skills, but everyone at Delta Gamma is already impressed with their progress. If you’d like to tag along on Binks’ journey, you can follow her on Instagram @binkstheguidedawg for tons of pupdates!