Name: Devy McWeeny
Members of Family: Abby Scott; John, Molly, and Graham McWeeny
Age: A little over 1 year
Breed: Labrador retriever
Adoption Story: After our kids graduated, we thought it would be a nice idea to get a dog, and Abby’s cousin works as a trainer for the ‘K-9 Companions’ program, which trains dogs to be service dogs. We provide a short-term home and training (“puppy raising”) for puppies who later get matched to someone with service needs. We’ve done it once before and had a great experience. We signed up to take on Devy — her original puppy raiser couldn’t continue, so we stepped in.
Devy is with us until she’s 18 months old. She then goes to Santa Rosa for six months to be trained by professional dog trainers. At that time they decide what she’d be best matched to do. Our last dog, Louisa, was matched with someone with hearing loss.
We teach her basic manners: to not jump on people, to walk with a loose leash. We also teach her about 20 different commands — everything from “sit” to “under,” where she crawls under things.
On campus 
Happy Easter!
Likes: She likes to eat grass (which she’s not supposed to do), and she loves being around other dogs and children. She also loves to greet the elementary students as they walk to Wildwood in front of our house.
Dislikes: She doesn’t like to bark—and only obliges on the command “speak.”
Interesting facts: She’s a very good student. She can be found in her yellow training vest helping us shop at Safeway, going up and down elevators, or walking around the UC Berkeley campus.
Anything else: K-9 Companions is a great program and helps many people and dogs.