While fulfilling her service hours, one Upper School student impacts the lives of others by puppy training a future service dog.

When 11-month yellow lab Belle is at school wearing her “Service Dog in Training” vest, she is at work. Sidwell Friends School is just one of the many places her trainer, Isabel Merideth ‘27, brings her in an effort to socialize her.

Merideth’s family is a volunteer puppy raising family for the Guide Dog Foundation. Belle is their fourth puppy. They are training Belle to be a guide dog for a person who is blind or visually impaired. As puppy raisers, they have each dog from the age of two months until they are 14-16 months old, at which point they go to the next stage of training at the foundation in Long Island, New York.

Merideth, who does most of the training, focuses on exposing Belle to as many different settings as possible: stores, libraries, movie theatres, malls, restaurants, the Metro, airplanes, cars, buses—and the classrooms, corridors, and campus spaces of Sidwell Friends.

“Belle has so many student and teacher friends—countless people have told me how much better they feel after seeing her in class, patting her following a difficult exam, or passing her in the hallways,” says Merideth. “She especially loves coming to Chorus with me and she enjoys Meeting for Worship though it took her a little while to adjust to a room full of silent people.”

“I have 5th and 6th periods with Isabel and Belle and my mood always improves when I see Belle sleeping peacefully on the floor. She will occasionally grunt or snore and the entire class will start laughing and get distracted for a couple of minutes,” says Dylan Verma ‘26. “I think it’s so cool that not only is Isabel able to manage both Belle and going through junior year at Sidwell, but that Mr. Gross (Upper School Principal Robbie Gross) was able to work to make this happen! Everybody’s day is improved when they see Belle walking through the halls.” 

“When Isabel brings her service dog in training to class, it's a win-win. Not only is the dog engaging in new experiences and learning how to navigate large crowds in the halls, but everyone seems to benefit from the calming sense animals provide,” says Upper School Math Teacher Dolores Hamilton. “There is no question that class is more joyful when the puppy walks in and lays down. How can it not be?”

As part of her service hours and puppy training, Merideth has given presentations to several classes to talk about why Belle is on campus, the hard work the dog is doing, and why training dogs to be service animals is important and meaningful. Recently, she talked to the 5th graders in Middle School Science Teacher Aaron Marine’s class. “Having Isabel and Belle in the classroom was an opportunity for the kids to see life science in action,” says Marine.

At home—vest retired for the day—Belle is just a regular dog who loves to play with toys, take walks, and frolic with her dog friends in the neighborhood.

Once Belle has finished her puppy training with Merideth and her family, she will head to the Guide Dog Foundation with the goal of being matched with an individual who is blind or visually impaired.

Merideth notes that only about 50 percent of dogs succeed through formal training. Nevertheless, she says, “there are so many avenues these dogs can take in service when matched with individuals who have a diagnosed physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability.” Merideth’s last dog, Bennie —who received cards and gifts last spring when he said goodbye to his many Sidwell friends—is now training to be a service dog for a child with autism through BluePath Service Dogs. 

Merideth hopes to continue her work as a puppy raiser in college. Many colleges have chapters and if the school she chooses does not, she plans to open one.

The hardest part of being a volunteer puppy trainer? “Saying goodbye,” says Merideth. “A dog like Belle becomes part of our family for more than a year, so it’s heartbreaking to say goodbye. But knowing she will be helping someone who really needs her does make sending her off into the world a bit easier.”