The 2026 college football season opens Saturday in Baton Rouge with LSU hosting Clemson, a matchup that should, by campus logic, center entirely on the athletes. What complicates that picture: both schools run Canine Companions puppy-raising clubs, and raisers say the dogs stop more strangers on a quad than most things in a jersey.
Canine Companions, a national nonprofit founded in 1975 in Santa Rosa, California, places purpose-bred Labrador Retrievers with people who have physical disabilities, cognitive challenges, or post-traumatic stress disorder, and with professionals in health care, criminal justice, and education. The organization has placed more than 8,500 dogs since Abdul, its first placement, in 1976. As of January, Canine Companions reported more than 2,800 service dogs actively working and more than 1,100 puppy raisers enrolled.
The clubs at LSU and Clemson raise dogs from roughly eight weeks of age through 14 to 16 months before passing them to a professional training program lasting six to nine months. Clemson's club has raised 15 dogs since 2021. LSU's four-year-old club raises five dogs a year, according to current club president Kelsey Johnson, a senior, who said Canine Companions requires raisers to attend at least two puppy classes a month. The case for college campuses as training environments is structural: raisers are approved to bring puppies to class, across campus, into every building, and to events, meaning the animals cycle through quiet libraries, crowded quads, and loud sporting events in the same week. "When people see our dogs on campus, they always stop and say hi," said Brooke Knight, Clemson's club president and a senior. LSU sophomore and president-elect Finley O'Con said raisers field roughly 15 conversations just crossing the quad.
The counterargument
The visibility comes with a cost most campus clubs do not carry. Raisers spend more than a year with an animal they will not keep. Clemson junior and vice president Allie McCafferty recently returned her puppy, Vinny, after roughly 18 months, so he could begin professional training. LSU senior Ella Menard, the club's current vice president, dropped off her puppy, Loyal, in May and says she misses him daily. Menard called the handoff "probably one of the hardest days of my whole life." If a dog does not complete professional training, Canine Companions offers raisers the option to reclaim the animal at no cost. The raisers are hoping for the outcome that forecloses that option.
On balance, Canine Companions has placed dogs at no cost to recipients since 1976. Last year marked the organization's 50th anniversary. Loyal is now in his second semester of professional training, working on foundational ambulatory skills for a manual wheelchair.