The Watkins Museum of History, known for educating human visitors, has received a certificate of appreciation from Canine Companions acknowledging the more than two dozen service dogs who have spent time training in the building.
Watkins volunteer Doug Tyler has brought 28 service dogs in training to his shifts over the last eight years. He estimated that the pups have collectively logged more than 900 hours at the museum’s front desk.
Since 2001, Tyler has trained puppies in collaboration with Canine Companions, a national nonprofit that prepares and places service dogs with people with disabilities for free. The organization placed 407 working dogs in 2024 alone, with 1,123 puppies currently being raised.
Folks like Tyler serve as an early link in the training chain for the pooches. He gets the dogs when they’re 8 weeks old, and by the 18-month mark, the animal will have learned 30 basic commands before graduating to a higher level of training with specialists.
Tyler has been volunteering at the Watkins since 2018, raising three dogs in that time.
The other 25 pups who have made appearances at the front desk come from the Kansas City chapter of Canine Companions volunteers.
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The most recent pup he Tyler trained, Rileigh, was a familiar snout around the museum before she was sent back to Canine Companions in February to start the next phase of her training.
“Rileigh was as good as they come, and a pleasure to raise,” Tyler wrote via email. “Only about 50% of the dogs make it (to becoming service dogs), and we had no doubts that Rileigh would.
“But it was due to the experience and exposure she got in Lawrence and at Watkins so often that helped her become comfortable with distractions and ignore them. It’s through the generosity of Watkins that makes it possible … they could, and some do, say ‘no dogs,’” Tyler wrote.
Working service dogs are ADA-protected and can follow their owners into many spaces that may otherwise prohibit dogs. Puppies in training don’t get the same access, so Tyler was grateful he could socialize them with walks around KU’s campus, rides on public transit and three-hour shifts at the Watkins’ front desk.
Watkins Executive Director Steve Novak said the dogs create a welcoming environment and a surprise for visitors.
“These dogs are being trained to work in public,” he wrote via email. “Becoming accustomed to encountering strangers is an important skill for them and the museum is a great place to learn that. Plus, it creates a great opportunity to engage visitors, as Doug introduces his dogs and explains about their training.”
Tiffany Robbins, the outreach manager at the Watkins, faithfully sends calls out via museum socials when a dog is on the premises.
She said many folks don’t know what the Watkins is or may be too intimidated to step inside. Dogs can encourage shyer visitors through the door.
“I think having the dogs shows that it’s not super uptight and fancy, it’s more laid back, and encourages people to come,” she said.
Folks should never pet or interfere with working service dogs, but puppies in training are a different story. Tyler’s puppies have gotten rapid-fire tests on field trip days as lines of school kids march past the front desk, each getting a good scritch in.
Tyler happily demonstrates the dogs’ skills to visitors. He’ll often have dogs put their paws on a desk or table and bump his hand with their nose.
When they get up to Ohio for advanced training, they convert that skill into hitting the buttons on the walls to open an accessible automatic door, turning on a light switch or doing other things with their noses, Tyler said.
During Rileigh’s August graduation, Tyler spoke to the regional puppy program manager about a certificate acknowledging the Watkins’ role in the life of dogs like Rileigh. He presented the certificate to the museum last week.
“Through Watkins Museum of History, the miracle of the human-animal bond is formed and strengthened,” the certificate reads.
“There’s people out in our community that have service dogs, and so showing that they can bring them in here, and it’s a place that they can come and be accepted (is important),” Robbins said.
Rileigh has now gone to a man with a spinal cord injury, but museumgoers should be on the lookout. Tyler said that come December or January, he’ll have a new tail-wagger from Canine Companions named Runner.
In the meantime, guests can expect surprise visits from other pups from the Kansas City Canine Companions chapter.
Canine Companions receives more applications for service dogs than they can fulfill, and Tyler says there isn’t a contingent of puppy trainers in Lawrence yet.
Interested volunteers can learn about the gig and apply here. Early trainers are thoroughly vetted by the organization but do not need to be canine behavioral experts.
The Watkins Museum accepts a variety of volunteers, including front desk, collections and education volunteers. They also welcome on-call volunteers for those who can’t commit to regular shifts. Learn more here.
The museum is free and open to the community from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.
Doug and the dogs can usually be spotted from 1 to 4 p.m. on Fridays. Get more doggy updates on the Watkins’ Instagram and Facebook.
Meet a few more of the service dogs in training who have visited the Watkins:
Note: This post has been corrected from a previous version.
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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at wulfe@lawrencekstimes.com.
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