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03/22/2016 12:00 PMEveryone loves Puddin. And in return, this boxer, a certified therapy/companion dog, provides love and support to everyone at Old Saybrook Middle School (OSMS), students and staff alike.
“I honestly believe she knows all 525 kids’ scents. Even in the auditorium, she’s panning with her nose—and she also checks in with all of the kids when they’re at their lockers,” said Puddin’s master, OSMS 5th-grade teacher Danielle St. Germain.
St. Germain put Puddin through her paces when, as a pair, they completed the training to have her certified as a therapy/companion dog. Not every canine succeeds. But Puddin did.
Dogs that qualify must be obedient in response to commands, be calm in stressful situations (including having a stranger hug or pet them), and enjoy being with people.
Time spent with Puddin is a earned reward for middle school students with behavior issues. For 3rd and 4th-graders, walking Puddin at recess is a privilege rotated—and sought—through good behavior. And even for staff, at the end of a demanding day, a few minutes in Puddin’s judgment-free company can comfort and relieve stress.
Walk down the halls of the school, and when Puddin approaches, everyone, students and staff alike, will smile and speak to her.
“Puddin is a companion who can be there for the kids. Kids talk to her. Kids read to her,” said St. Germain.
The boxer comes to the middle school with St. Germain each Tuesday and Thursday.
“She’s been coming to the middle school for about three years, spending most of her time with 4th and 5th-graders. She’s been there when students were upset and needed comforting. And time with her is a reward for students with behavioral needs,” explained Principal Mandy Ryan.
Puddin’s visits to the middle school have been so successful, the program was expanded this year to add another dog. Rocky, also certified as a therapy/companion dog, is a standard poodle. Accompanying his master Lisa Eaton, a 7th-grade Special Education teacher, Rocky comes in every Friday to support, comfort, and engage with the school’s 7th-grade students.
This trend of tapping trained animals to help comfort students and reduce their stress is present at every school level from elementary school through college and universities. At many universities, therapy dog visits to libraries during finals weeks are a routine event designed to help overly stressed students to relax for a few minutes.
At Yale University library during a 2013 finals week, for a two-hour student study break, handlers and dogs from Tails for Joy, a Connecticut non-profit, brought therapy dogs with whom students could interact. At MacAlester College in Minnesota, special Dog Days are scheduled during each of the college’s two semester finals weeks; students can come to hug and pet the trained therapy dogs. At the University of North Carolina Health Sciences library in December 2015, finals week featured free coffee, longer library hours, and one-hour visits by each of two companion dogs, profiled by name and photo in the event announcement. Presumably, some dogs must be returning stars and student favorites.
A number of organizations in Connecticut offer training classes for dogs seeking certifications as therapy or companion dogs. This list includes Tails of Joy, Inc. of Manchester (www.tailsofjoy.org), Soul Friends of Wallingford (www.soul-friends.org), and, through local partners, the Connecticut Humane Society and the Good Dog Foundation. Therapy and companion dogs differ from service dogs. Service dogs, assigned as the personal companion of a blind or disabled person, require a more extensive training and certification regimen than do therapy/companion dogs.