Therapy dog helps Newark students
By Jennifer Bradford
Newark High School's newest volunteer has made herself quite at home in the
building's Equivalency of Instruction program, bringing with her a bed, a water
bowl, and a bone to chew on. She is "Visions," an eight-year-old black Labrador
retriever, now a therapy dog.
Teacher Stephanie Thomas graduated from Newark High School in 1990. She returned this fall to join the faculty, introduced Visions to her classroom, hoping to reduce her students' stress levels, increase their self-esteem, and make school more appealing to them.
The students are responding well to the dog's presence, Thomas says. Kids who once lingered in the hallway until the last bell now arrive early to visit before class. "It is rewarding for them to see her reaction to them," Thomas observes, noting that even kids who were wary about animals feel comfortable with Visions now. She is shown at the feet of student Butch Bouwens.
While one student admits that she is, at times, distracted by Visions' presence in the aisles, she also agreed with Thomas that such practice in planned ignoring is one of the many benefits to the program.
Visions has also impacted student interests. As part of his Particpation in Government volunteer project, senior Will Morales is preparing a presentation on guide and therapy dogs. He hopes to educate students at the High and Kelley Schools about working dogs' contributions.
This is not Visions' first trip down the halls of NHS. During Thomas' senior year, Visions accompanied her everywhere, even to her classes. When the Newark Lions Club sponsored Visions and her litter mates to be part of the Guide Dog Foundation, Thomas became a "puppy walker," someone in charge of the dog's socialization during its first year of life. Having a puppy around all day, every day really put a strain on her social life, Thomas recalls, but when she recently received a call asking her if she'd like Visions back, she jumped at the chance.
The visually impaired woman whom Visions served for five years died last spring, and Visions was deemed too old to continue in service to the Guide Dog Foundation. Thomas, as her puppy walker, was given the first opportunity to adopt her.
Visions did not find the transition to retirement easy, however. Left alone during the day for the first time in her life, she became depressed and anxious. Despite, or perhaps because of, her advanced obedience training, Visions took to chewing through any type of barrier (doors, for example) in an effort, Thomas says, "to be with the person (she thought) she was supposed to be with... the person she was supposed to serve."
Thomas looked to pet therapy as a way to lessen the intensity of Visions' anxiety and to give her a sense of purpose again. The two worked together in a Rochester nursing home, but with school due to open again, Thomas investigated the possibility of incorporating Visions into her own work. High School Principal Gary Grant says that he was surprised by the amount of literature discussing the effects of pet therapy on students.
He soon "became convinced that this was something that, although unusual, could prove to be beneficial to many of our students."
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