It was a dog-day afternoon for a couple of hours Sunday at the South Park Recreation Center.
A half-dozen young Labrador retrievers with names such as Bang, Pop and Ghost scampered about the main room of the center, 1141 Mass., chasing rubber balls, chewing on stuffed animals or playing while their owners and trainers looked on.
"This is just a social occasion," said Nancy Giossi, of Lawrence, as she kept an eye on her dog, Black Cat.
But the black, yellow and white Labs were not your run-of-the mill family pets. Sometime during the next several months they will undergo advanced training with Kansas Specialty Dog Service in Washington, Kan. There they will learn how to be service dogs for disabled and blind people.
The dogs' current owners, such as Giossi and her husband, John, raise Labs for the service and teach them basic obedience. They are unpaid volunteers.
"I like it. It's something I'm good at," Nancy Giossi said. "It's rewarding."
During the upcoming training, instead of learning how to retrieve the daily newspaper from the flower bed, the dogs will learn the difference between retrieving a bottle of water and a bottle of milk. They will learn how to open doors for a new owner, who might be in a wheelchair, or how to guide a blind owner across a busy street intersection.
The dogs are chosen based on their physical backgrounds, disposition, temperament and trainability. Most are Labs or golden retrievers.
It's been nearly a year since Carly Sakumura, 16, started working with a white Lab she calls Ghost. Her parents, Eric and Beth Sakumura, have been training dogs for eight or nine years, Carly said, but Ghost is her first. In addition to obedience, Carly sometimes takes the dog with her to Lawrence High School for a couple of hours to get Ghost use to being with an owner in that setting.
Ghost, a lab puppy, looks up at her trainer Carly Sakumura during a get-together for people who raise service dogs. The Sunday afternoon event was at the South Park Recreation Center, 1141 Mass. Ghost is the first dog Carly has trained for the program.
"She does really good," Carly said. "She mostly sleeps while I'm in class."
Carly also splits training duties with a friend, Brianne Pfannenstiel, 16.
"It's been really exciting," Brianne, also of Lawrence, said. "I'm learning. Carly is the expert and I'm just along for the ride."
Neither Carly nor Brianne, however, are sure they want to train another dog because of the amount of time it requires, they said. Carly and her family are with Ghost constantly in addition to specific training times of 30 minutes to an hour a day.
Carly said giving the dog up next year won't be easy, she said.
Labs handle breakups with old owners and adjust to new ones better than other breeds, such as German shepherds, said Steve Harlan, Kansas City, Mo., who brought his dog, Carmine, to the Lawrence get-together.
In addition to "sitting" and "staying," Harlan has taught Carmine how to bring him the phone, keys and television remote.
"I never have to pick anything up anymore," Harlan said with a laugh.
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