FOR YEARS, the Manchester City School District has been looking for a service dog to work in their school system… and that wish has finally been granted in the form of the Bernedoodle puppy, Daisy.
While there are organizations that work with private pet owners whose dogs are certified, none of those dogs were available to come to the Manchester school district. Daisy was a gift from Clanton Ridge Doodles, based in West Point Tennessee. The work involved with raising and training a service dog doesn’t end there. Daisy needed someone to care for her and get her certified, and that volunteer was school social worker, Lou Paschall.
“They actually donate a puppy every year,” Paschall said. “They actually contacted us about donating a puppy to the district, and so it was a really great opportunity for us.”
Paschall hasn’t taken the responsibility lightly. “She’s taking that on, and she is raising this puppy,” said College Street Elementary’s principal, Tom Jacobs, “She’s made a Facebook page for it and everything.”
Daisy will have to go through several stages of training to become a fully-fledged service dog; a process that will take months. Paschall will be working with a trainer in Murfreesboro.
“There’s a basic skills class that she’ll take and that could be in the next couple of months, and then there’s a second part [that] is a canine good citizen course that’s a little more advanced than that,” said Paschall. “She has to be 18 months old to take the actual therapy dog certification.”
Once Daisy has passed her certification, she will begin to work in the school system.
“The idea behind it is to… be able to come in and work with students,” Jacobs said. “Help bring them some comfort in some way.”
Statistics have shown that this is not wishful thinking. Trauma patients have a much easier time with animal assisted therapy. Eighty one percent of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) prefer to play with animals over toys, and children in speech therapy can find it much easier to practice with an animal than with an adult or even friends. Even in smaller situations therapy animals can have a major influence in calming stress and anxiety.
“We might just do something like bring the therapy dog, and the therapy dog’s there while we are reading a story to [the] children – so building those literacy skills,” Paschall said. “There’s just so many different ways that it can be beneficial to students.”
Daisy’s work will affect children across the community as a result of the community effort going into her placement and training. Clanton Ridge Doodles donated the dog and provided resources on how to care for her, and the Manchester Animal Health Clinic is partnering with the Manchester City School District to provide well-care.
“It’s already definitely a community venture, where we have support from outside of… the school system to help us bring this to our students,” Paschall said. “We’re really appreciative of that as a district.” GN
