About Us

The Louisiana State University Service-Dog Training and Education Program, known as STEP@LSU for short, is a non-profit and service organization that focuses on raising funds, educating the LSU and Baton Rouge community, and training service dogs for people with disabilities. We train our future service dogs in conjunction with Canine Companions®, which is also a non-profit organization. Their provided Labrador retrievers, Golden retrievers, and Labrador/Golden crosses represent both Canine Companions® and LSU, wearing yellow and blue around our LSU campus and Baton Rouge community. It is of the highest importance that we hold our puppies and their raisers to high standards, always making sure our future service dogs are loved, well cared for, and on their best behavior. This Registered Student Organization will allow students the opportunity to raise and train service dogs for the organization Canine Companions®, as well as fundraise for the club, educate our community, and establish a community on campus and in Baton Rouge. Canine Companions® is a national organization based in Santa Rosa, CA, which places trained canines in a variety of different capacities. Canine Companions® is leading the service dog industry so their clients and their dogs can live with greater independence. The organization provides service dogs to adults, children, and veterans with disabilities and facility dogs to professionals working in healthcare, criminal justice, and educational settings. Their dogs may be placed as service dogs for adults and children with disabilities, hearing dogs for adults who are deaf or hard of hearing, or facility dogs that serve at different types of institutions. Canine Companions® breed their puppies at their respective headquarters and leave the puppies to a "Breeder Caretaker", who takes care of the puppies until they are sent to their raisers. At eight weeks old, the puppies are sent to puppy raisers across America, and the raising process begins. Sixteen to eighteen months later, after socializing the puppies in all environments and teaching them over 30 commands, raisers travel to their local headquarters to turn their dogs back over to Canine Companions®. Their headquarters are located in Irving, TX and Orlando, FL. After the matriculation ceremony (when the dogs are officially turned in for professional training), the dogs spend six to nine months with professional trainers, learning advanced commands such as turning on light switches and opening doors, until they are deemed ready to graduate. They are then taken to Team Training, in which human graduates in need of a service dog interact with several different dogs and are specifically matched with the dog that fits their needs best.