Dog receives Bachelor's degree from Ohio Northern

Judging by some of the instructors I've had, that dog can probably teach, too.

Interesting story. But something struck me: a 1-year old dog "has spent thousands of hours training". Really? Thousands of hours? At what age did it start? From my understanding, service dogs don't begin training, beyond basic obedience, until they are a year old and their temperment emerges.

I was a service dog puppyraiser, and we basically started when they were 8 weeks with basic obedience (no, that's not too soon for basics) and then depending on the dog, we worked on "games" like tug, touch, etc. and naming items (keys, phone, light, etc.) that would later be paired with other commands to make up things like pulling open a cabinet or retrieving a phone versus retrieving a remote control, activating a light switch, etc.

I'd be willing to bet they goofed up the age of the dog though.

i started training my service dog, coco, when she was about 9 months old, which was how old she was when I adopted her from a shelter.  most agencies do not start training until they are about 3 years old, esp. in the case of guide dogs.  It's no easy to task training a young dog, and if I could, I'd kick myself for doing it.  but thousands of hours sounds about right to me, since training a dog really can be a round the clock thing when it comes to a service dog.