Fox 5 Hosts Captain

NBC Washington Hosts Captain

Captain's 1st Puppy Class

Learning Eye Contact

In this video Captain was working on name recognition with eye contact and remaining focused on his raiser. It’s important that a service dog looks at his or her handler when they hear their name. This helps to keep the service dog focused on the handler, especially in distracting environments. This eye contact is important to creating a connection between the handler and their service dog.

When training Captain, his raiser says his name and when he looks at her, she rewards him with food. In addition, she rewards him with food if he looks at her on his own and this helps to keep his attention focused on her. As Captain is learning to leave distracting things alone, his raiser says his name and when he looks away from the distraction to give her eye contact, he is rewarded. All of this is an important part of his positive reinforcement training while working toward becoming the best service dog he can be.

Meet Captain

 Hello Capitals fans!  I'm Captain, the new Washington Capitals puppy.

I’m super stoked to be spending the next 16 months with you.  I’ll be learning a lot so I can become an awesome service dog, and one day be paired with a veteran. I can’t wait to strut my stuff at practices, home games, and other special team events.  I've already made a great friend with the other team captain Alex. Be sure to catch me on my Instagram and Twitter accounts.  Time to bounce - see you soon. 

Birthday: July 22, 2019
Mom: Tennyson (Black Labrador Retriever)
Dad: Neal (Yellow Labrador Retriever)
This little yellow Labrador Retriever has a spunky personality, loves to chase the biscuit, is very curious, and has a great flow.

Meet Deana Stone

Deana Stone grew up moving around the United States every couple of years, depending on where the Coast Guard stationed her family.  After graduating high school in Gig Harbor, Washington, she. joined the Air Force and served for 20 years. During her first 12 years, she worked as a military working dog handler and trainer, and spent the last eight years of her commitment as a paralegal.  Deana met her husband Jim while in service; the couple was married in 1993.  Jim and Deana have a 12-year old-daughter, Leah.  

After Jim Stone retired from the Air Force, the family settled in Burke, Virginia.  Soon after, Deana met a Guide Dog Foundation puppy raiser, and she knew that she wanted to get involved with puppy raising.  In addition to raising puppies for the Foundation, Deana was also tapped to be a group leader and area coordinator, helping to oversee and support the National Capital Region puppy raising group.  In October 2017, Deana became a Guide Dog Foundation employee as a puppy program representative for the Washington, DC, area. She continues to volunteer as a puppy raiser.  

In August 2017, Deana began raising future guide dog Smudge, a popular star on the social media platform The Dodo. Deana and Smudge create monthly live videos about puppy raising and training for The Dodo and the Guide Dog Foundation. 

Deana volunteered to be the puppy raiser for the upcoming NBC Class of 2019 “puppy with a purpose” program. She appreciates the opportunity to share her love of puppy raising and helping others. 

Get your Captain here!