A standout among dog trainers

Teen dreams of teaching others with disabilities to work with guide dogs

Ben Swan | The New Mexican

12/6/2008 - 11/28/08

Bella Larsen Auger is like many teenagers her age : shy around strangers, quick to look for help from Dad when stuck with a difficult question and sometimes unsure of herself. But give her a dog and she transforms completely.

"Dogs make me happy," said Bella, 15, choosing her words carefully, slowly sounding out the syllables. "They have a love for people. I know it because of how they look."

Bella, who has developmental disabilities, has had a service dog, Candy, since she was 5. Born with Pierre Robin Syndrome — a congenital condition that in Bella's case meant a soft palette — she endured extensive oral surgery as an infant for proper breathing and speaking, said her father, Stephen Auger, a Santa Fe artist and colorist.

Stuck with a feeding tube in her rib cage from the time she was 14 months old, Auger and Bella's mother, Lisa Larsen, kept her alive with a nutritious liquid food they developed that has since become a guide for other parents. At 10, Bella had learned to eat and sustain herself and simply said "enough" with the tube, her father said. She had it removed, against doctors' advice.

"That tenacity has really shaped her personality," Auger said. "It took years for her to relearn how to chew and eat."

Now a ninth-grader in special education and standard classes, Bella is best known as an effective dog trainer and talented photographer. "I'd hire her right now if I could," said Jill Felice, the founder and program director of Assistance Dogs of the West. "But sometimes you just have to wait" until they're older.

Bella blossoms when she works with dogs and hopes to make it her career. She sees how important dogs can be in helping people, Auger said, and that instills in her a sense of confidence. "It helps her in a direct way in that it allows her to really give. It puts her disability in context; she knows she's not alone. Her dream right now is to actually teach people with disabilities how to train dogs," he said.

Felice met Bella when she was 3. Felice was working to place Candy with a neighbor whose paraplegic daughter was Bella's friend. The dog immediately bonded with Bella. The placement didn't pan out, but a year or so later, Felice thought of Candy for Bella.

"I think it was the first time Jill had placed a dog with someone with just developmental disabilities," Auger said. "But it ended up being very good for Bella. She was very shy and had a lot of language problems, so the first thing Candy did was to help Bella vocalize and to say things clearly, get the command out and get her voice out loud enough."

Four years ago, Bella wanted to become involved in training dogs through the group's summer program. But there wasn't any room that summer, so she picked up her camera and documented the group's work. "Bella's always been quite a photographer," Auger said. "She had some early training with a wonderful friend who's a photographer."

And prolific. She's published four volumes of photos, all of which she designs and prints by computer.

But her passionate work with dogs makes her a standout among trainers. The next summer and every one since, Bella's been involved with an ADW program.

"She took to it naturally," Auger said. "She's just very patient, and her focus is always on the animal. That's unusual for a young person who is usually distracted by a cell phone or something else. Bella can keep eight to 10 dogs under control just in her periphery. Jill noticed Bella had this proclivity and she has become Bella's mentor."

When it comes to training service dogs, Felice said, she doesn't consider that Bella has a disability. "My philosophy is that you have whatever you have when you walk through the door," she said. " ... I only look at capability. And my job is to bring out more and more of their capability."

Service dogs in training work with dozens of people with various developmental disabilities through ADW's rehabilitation program. The nonprofit also runs programs in and after school and in juvenile detention centers. Service dogs go through between 18 and 24 months of training before placement. More than 100 dogs have been placed with people of various disabilities since the program started in 1995.

People with disabilities sometimes want to become trainers, Felice said. "I think they feel they are able to give back to the community, and I think that makes them feel special and good. ... What I find with someone like Bella is that she listens and watches closely to where each dog is going, and she really tries to help that dog achieve its success for that person."

Bella, who divides her time between her father's home and her mother's in Boulder, Colo., has a second service dog, Dewey, in Santa Fe. Bella helped train him while she was in Santa Fe last year.

Bella's work, Auger said, and has helped her accept her disability. "She acknowledges her disability, and she definitely owns it," he said. "But she also sees the potential: This is something I can work with; something I can give to people with disabilities. It's this confidence that has come from dogs. I don't know how she would have found it otherwise."

Bella, cuddling a chocolate Lab, said she's happiest when she's with dogs. "They make me calm," she said in a recent e-mail. "I have a gift with dogs because I have a touch with dogs."

Contact Ben Swan at 986-3051 or bswan@sfnewmexican.com.