Whether on the way in which to class in Wallenberg Hall, whereas working outdoors CoHo or scrolling by means of Fizz, college students have in all probability seen Roberto Smith along with his crew of almost a dozen dogs walking round Stanford campus.
For many college students, Smith and his canine companions have grow to be a campus staple, frequenting paths between the Graduate School of Business, Main Quad, Tresidder, Hoover Tower and different campus landmarks. For those that miss his appearances on campus, he shares his journeys on his Instagram: @robs_dogs_.
Originally hailing from Florida, Smith moved to California 4 years in the past for causes fairly totally different from the numerous scholar onlookers he passes by on campus.
“I was in Florida, and one of my friends saw me playing with some dogs in the street, and he offered me a job in California working with dogs,” Smith mentioned. He’s been dog-walking at Stanford ever since.
Smith mentioned that he has all the time liked working with animals, particularly dogs.
“The dogs help me a lot with my energy … They teach you a lot. They teach you how to be patient, how to calm yourself,” Smith mentioned.
Smith works with shoppers from the Bay Area and mentioned that he loves driving to Stanford a number of instances every week to walk the dogs, or as Smith affectionately calls them, “doggies.”
“I like working at Stanford because it’s a nice place to walk,” Smith mentioned. “[Stanford] is a good place for [the dogs]. There’s a lot of shade, and there’s a lot of good places to walk that make people happy.”
To Smith, canine walking is a rewarding career. Sometimes, he mentioned, college students or passersby cease him to confide that they “were having a bad day and seeing the doggies changed the day for them.”
“That makes me happy, too; it’s nice when you change somebody’s day,” Smith mentioned.
However, canine walking just isn’t all the time clean crusing. Sometimes, the dogs may give him “a hard time,” particularly when they’re new dogs or after they react to distractions on campus, Smith mentioned.
“They have different personalities, so I’m working on them little by little so they know how to get along with the other dogs,” Smith mentioned. “Some of the doggies … they react to people, they react to squirrels, to scooters.”
Smith might be seen walking dogs of all shapes, colours and sizes, starting from golden retrievers to poodles to German shepherds.
Many college students say that they take pleasure in seeing Smith and his dogs round campus. Posts about Smith and different canine walkers on campus on Fizz, an nameless social networking app for Stanford college students, have gone viral, with some garnering over two thousand upvotes. In the feedback, college students joke, “How do I become a dog walker?” or share feedback of affection like “SOO CUTEE!!”
“I feel like it’s a guardian army patrolling the campus. It’s a welcoming sight and a nice picture to see the fluffy dogs walking around,” mentioned Jack Hsieh ’27.
Hsieh acknowledged that “it also seems like a really big responsibility to be walking these dogs around. What if one runs away and chaos ensues? But it does seem like they’re all together in harmony, which is really endearing to see.”
Smith’s frequenting of campus has been particularly significant to frosh. Mikey Taylor ’27 mentioned, “I miss my dog a lot, so when I see the dog walker, it makes me really happy and less homesick.”
Smith isn’t the one canine walker on campus; one other by the identify of Ry the Pet Guy might be seen frequenting Stanford campus with a number of dogs in tow.
Over the years, Smith has developed an in depth relationship with every of his shoppers’ dogs. “They’re all my favorite. I know them, and I have love for all of them.”
Whenever college students see him and his canine entourage walking by, Smith encourages them to cease and say “hi.” Through walking his dogs, he mentioned that he has “so much fun meeting a lot of people.”
