KAUKAUNA, Wis. (WHDH) – Born with only three legs, Grey, the golden retriever, quickly won his family over with calmness and charm.

“When we were there to look at him, while all the other puppies were flying around, he just gently sat at our legs and just enjoyed being petted, so we knew he was a very mellow dog, which would fit very well with our family,” said Stephen Cove, Grey’s owner.

Grey does fine with three legs, but his owner wanted to give him the feeling of being complete. An engineering teacher heard about the dog and wanted to help.

“We got a new puppy at our house, the trainer was telling us about Grey, and I just kind of casually said, we have a 3D printer, we could do something with that dog and that’s how we got going,” said Nels Lawrence, from the Kaukauna High School Tech and Engineering Department.

His students accepted the challenge. A high school senior designed and built the leg – start to finish – using a 3D printer.

“It’s actually a little string of plastic, the 3D printer melts the plastic and it works like a CNC machine, it lays down a layer, then it moves up a layer,” said Lawrence.

The project started five months ago, and with a few more tweaks, Grey will be able to use his new 3D printed leg, which can adjust to his height as he grows.

The student who built the leg said he plans to study aerospace engineering after graduating high school.

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