Dear Friends and Supporters:

Please consider making a donation to Nor’wester Therapy Dogs so that we can continue to grow our program and services. It is people like you who help us keep the therapy dog magic alive for students who are struggling socially, emotionally, and academically.  If you prefer not to donate via the Facebook Giving Tuesday campaign, you may donate via our website or send a check to:

Thanking you in advance for your generosity.

Mike Nelson and his teachers work together closely. They communicate weekly regarding the expectations the teacher has for the upcoming therapy dog visit.  Mike then offers suggestions about what he and Bubba can do to enhance the goals set for the visit.  This collaboration has produced amazing results and supports the mission and vision of the Nor’wester canine partners in education program.

Mike shares: “Most classrooms have a Smartboard. I will supply the teachers with photos of Bubba with labels such as “math,” “spelling,” and “reading.”  The teachers then load the photos onto the Smartboard and use them throughout the week (not just during the hour that Bubba visits) to encourage and motivate the students. Teachers often use Bubba as an incentive: “Bubba will be here Friday, and he is eager to hear you read your book!”

It wasn’t long before the directors of the Nor’wester organization sensed that Mike and Bubba would be great in special education classes. They started with special needs children at Warwick House in Hartsville. Warwick is a residential facility, so children live there while emotional support and crisis intervention occurs. The Bucks County Intermediate Unit provides special education & emotional support teachers so the children can continue their academic studies while living at Warwick House.

The teacher at Warwick observed very quickly that Bubba had a very calming effect upon the students, which made it easier for them to focus on their assignments and make progress. Mike shared: “Bubba will sit or lie by their feet and listen to them read or do math flash cards. Each student has a chance to brush Bubba and choose a trick for Bubba to perform. Bubba is loved dearly, and he has received cards and books created by the students. Each Christmas Bubba gives the students a small stuffed likeness with a tag that says STUDY WITH ME. One Christmas the children and teacher gave Bubba a beautiful collar which he still wears.”

Then the Nor’wester directors asked Mike if he would take Bubba to help brain damaged/special needs students at Council Rock High School – North. Some are partially paralyzed; others are deaf or blind, non-verbal, and with limited attention spans.

Bubba works with the teachers and therapists to bring out the best in all of them. The teachers are very creative and often use Bubba in a group setting. One child would not speak or look at any adult. After a few months he had a one-word vocabulary, “Bubba,” and he would look at Bubba and Mike. 

Many of the students are nonverbal and use their tablets to answer questions. Their tablets have a special page for Bubba with commands or phrases such as “Bubba, sit,” “Bubba, beg,” “Brush Bubba” and “Goodbye, Bubba.” As a group they select Bubba cards with numbers. The number determines in what order they will do an activity with Bubba.  Some favorite activities are brushing Bubba and teaching him tricks. The students will help demonstrate a trick while Bubba watches. Then they all watch to see if Bubba can do the trick.  Mike always gives them full credit for training his dog.

This year on Friday mornings you will find Bubba at Bensalem and Friday afternoons at Council Rock North. The teachers at both high schools think out of the box creatively and use technology to support how they use Bubba in their classrooms. The students and teachers at both high schools love Bubba and recently presented him with a red and yellow hand-sewn Super Dog Hero Cape. In addition, Bubba is working with an autistic support class at Maple Point Middle School in Neshaminy.

Bubba creates magic wherever he goes. Mike claims the magic formula for a therapy dog is:

Golden Retriever PLUS excellent training PLUS Nor’wester’s vision PLUS creative, dedicated teachers EQUALS Bubba, an amazing therapy dog.

Mike Nelson and his Golden Retriever Bubba have been volunteering with Nor’wester Therapy Dogs since 2012. They are one of our teams that work primarily with special needs students. Not only do Mike and Bubba currently visit four classes weekly, they also do summer Extended School Year visits. We asked Mike to share a bit about himself, the dogs he’s had in his life, and how he came to therapy dog work.

Mike and his siblings were born in Brooklyn, NY and later moved to New Jersey when he was a teen. He received his Civil Engineering degree from NJIT and his master’s degree in water resources engineering from Villanova University.  Ultimately, Mike moved to Philadelphia with his wife Barbara. They have five children and ten grandchildren

When they moved to Philadelphia, they bought a house and it was time for dogs to come into their lives. Over 50 plus years of marriage, Mike and his family have enjoyed seven dogs (2 Vizslas and 5 Golden Retrievers).

Mike adopted his fourth Golden Retriever from the Delaware Valley Golden Retriever Rescue (DVGRR). All his previous dogs had been puppies purchased from breeders. When Mike picked up his first adopted dog from DVGRR, they recommended that he enroll the three-year-old Scoobie in dog training classes. Mike then joined Old York Road Dog Training Club (OYRDTC) on the recommendation of his vet.

This was Mike’s first experience with formal obedience training, and he said, “Everything I’d learned before was wrong!” The patient instructors quickly re-educated Mike about positive reinforcement in  training.  Mike declared, “Scoobie, my adopted Golden, learned much quicker than I, and eventually, he  was competing successfully in competitive rally events.”

Scoobie was also a wonderful and very obedient family dog. Sadly, Mike and his family lost Scoobie to cancer around the age of eight, and he immediately asked OYRDTC to find him another Golden Retriever.

Within weeks Mike had a new three-year-old Golden named Bubba, and he began the training process anew with the club. Bubba was very obedient and a quick learner who loved everyone. It wasn’t long before the instructors recognized that he would make a great therapy dog. Mike said he had no clue what a therapy dog was. Mike and Bubba trained so they could test for the proper certifications, and six months later Bubba was a registered therapy dog!

Bubba and Mike have worked exclusively with the Nor’wester Therapy Dogs organization. Their first assigned class was with children working on their reading skills. If the children did well, the teacher would allow Bubba to do a trick for them. Mike would let the student give the command, and Bubba would respond.

Mike shared that his teachers were always quite creative in how they incorporated him and Bubba into their academic goals and lesson plans. (Next week Mike shares more therapy dog experiences and some of the ways he and his teachers collaborated in making learning more fun for the students.)

It’s inevitable that we sometimes lose therapy dog teams during the school year. It’s a sad reality that is often difficult for children and teachers who have worked so closely with the therapy dog and handler.

Nor’wester handler Karen McAllister shared a recent experience when a former special needs student made a sympathy card after learning about Moose’s death.

Karen wrote: “About five years ago, my daughter was teaching life skills to children with special needs at Olney Charter High School in Philadelphia. She asked me if my bulldog Moose and I would visit her classroom as a therapy dog team.

I don’t know who enjoyed our visits more: Moose, the students, or myself.  They all got such a thrill from our visits and made important academic strides with Moose by their sides. My daughter eventually relocated to another school district in an administrative role, and we stopped visiting Olney. 

About a month ago, one of her former students asked how Moose was, and she had to tell her that Moose had died.  This student, who has severe language challenges, had been very fond of Moose. Later that day, the student gave my daughter a special card and message for me and my family. The drawings are beautiful and so expressive and reminded me how worthwhile our visits to Olney had been.”

HOW TO TOUCH A DOG

As therapy dog handlers, we are responsible for making sure that children behave appropriately around dogs, and this is a perfect opportunity to teach them how to respect all dogs and interact safely with them.

If you read articles by animal behaviorists, you will eventually read about the best way to touch your dogs. Many dog owners perceive their pets as “fur babies” and approach touching in similar ways that people touch humans – think hugging. Many dogs will tolerate hugging, but do not really like it.

So let’s take the time to think about how your dog prefers to be touched. Think of touching by their canine rules. 

Most people touch dogs on top of the head while standing directly over them.  From a canine viewpoint, this is an aggressive move.  What most dogs love and prefer is to be stroked on the cheeks and along the sides of the neck. 

Dogs prefer long, gentle strokes in the direction of hair growth, starting at the neck and proceeding rearward towards the tail.

And many dogs love to have their bellies rubbed.  If the dog is comfortable and offers its belly, gentle strokes often are quite pleasurable for them.

APPROACHING STRANGE DOGS

With strange dogs, it is  recommended to avert direct eye contact. Staring is perceived as hostile in the canine world, especially if it is sustained.  It is also strongly encouraged to approach strange dogs indirectly, making a slight arc in your path and coming towards their side. This gives the dog more time to get a sense of you without feeling a direct threat. We therapy dog handlers take the responsibility for monitoring how the students interact with our dogs. It is a perfect time to educate students in basic canine behavior, so they become safe around all dogs.

The Nor’wester organization strongly encourages teachers to think of their therapy dog team as a “teaching tool” to be used to help meet academic and instructional goals.  Tanya Mahon, a teacher at Davis Elementary in the Centennial School District shared two successful lessons used while her therapy dog team was visiting. 

COMPARE AND CONTRAST: VENN DIAGRAM Tanya began class by reading the story Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathman to her students.  Her goals included listening skills, literature appreciation, compare and contrast, and learning to use a Venn diagram. After the story was over, Tanya  asked each child to label the 3 sections of the diagram. The therapy dog, Molly, was the left circle portion, Gloria was the right portion, and the center overlap represented how both dogs were the same. They then had a discussion about the “differences” between Molly and Gloria, recording the specific differences in the corresponding circle portions. For example, Gloria is a police dog and Molly is a therapy dog.  Gloria was a German Shepherd and Hannah is a Portuguese Water Dog. Some of the similarities the children identified were that both dogs had a job and both were girls. It was amazing how the presence of a live dog really made the lesson come “alive!” 

MEASURING:  Using the book Measuring Penny by Loreen Leedy, Tanya set forth the goals of listening skills, literature appreciation, following directions, interpreting measurement in a variety of ways, and         recording the findings. This lesson took 2 weeks, and the second week incorporated compare and contrast since both Hannah and Heidi visited the class. In the story, Lisa has an important homework assignment– to measure something in several different ways. She has to use standard units like inches/centimeters and nonstandard units like paper clips to find out height, width, length, weight, volume, temperature, and time. Lisa decides to measure her dog, Penny, and finds out … Penny’s nose = 1 inch long  Penny’s tail = 1 dog biscuit long, and Penny’s paw print = 3 centimeters wide … and that was only the beginning! Lisa learns a lot about her dog and about measuring, and even has fun doing it. The students measured both Heidi (week 1) and Hannah the following week with inches, centimeters, Lego blocks, paper clips, and magic markers to find out how long their ears, legs, tails were and how tall each one was. They had lots of fun comparing and contrasting the differences between Heidi and Hannah.

THANK YOU to Tanya Mahon for sharing these wonderful teaching ideas! 

hand to paw – relieving test anxiety

It’s common for students to experience anxiety when anticipating the PSSA (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment) testing, which is administered to third and fifth graders in Pennsylvania elementary schools. Teachers do whatever they can to encourage their students to be confident and comfortable about taking the test.                                                                                                      

Last spring a teacher at Richboro Elementary in the Council Rock School District had a third grade boy who was extremely anxious about taking the PSSA test. She was concerned that it would seriously impede his focus so he wouldn’t be able perform to the best of his ability.                                                              

Knowing that the Nor’wester organization is available to work with guidance counselors and in crisis intervention, the teacher called on Wendi Huttner who was visiting Richboro weekly with Bode, a yellow Lab that belongs to her son Blake.

Wendi and Bode made an emergency visit to the school and spent about 30 minutes one on one with the student in the guidance counselor’s office. Bode’s calm and cheerful demeanor helped the boy to relax, and at the end of the visit he declared to Wendi and the guidance counselor, “I’m OK now. Let me go take the test!”   

by Jan Reisen 

Published on American Kennel Club website: July 31, 2019 

Dogs have been aiding and working with humans since ancient times, in everything from farming to hunting to protection and more. Service dogs, emotional support animals, and therapy dogs all fulfill important roles in their aid to humans, but the terms are not interchangeable: each is specifically defined, both in terms of their jobs and their legal rights.

What Do Service Dogs Do?

As defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), service dogs are individually trained to perform specific tasks and to work with people with disabilities. According to the ADA, disabilities can be “physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability.” The work of the service dog must be directly related to the handler’s disability. These are just some of the things a service dog can do:

Guide dogs help blind people navigate in the world.

Hearing (or signal) dogs alert deaf people to sounds, such as a knock on the door or a person entering the room.

Psychiatric dogs are trained to detect and lessen the effects of a psychiatric episode.

Service dogs help those in wheelchairs or who are otherwise physically limited. They may open doors or cabinets, fetch things their handler can’t reach, and carry items for their handler.

Autism assistance dogs are trained to help those on the autism spectrum to distinguish important sensory signals, such as a smoke alarm, from other sensory input. They may also alert their handler to repetitive behaviors or overstimulation.

Service dogs that are trained to recognize seizures and will stand guard over their handler during a seizure or go for help.

What Rights Do Service Dogs Have?

The ADA mandates that service dogs have full public access rights, which means they are allowed to go places where are animals are forbidden. They can be brought into restaurants, stores, libraries, and other public spaces. They must be permitted in housing, even if other pets are not allowed. Service dogs are also allowed on airplanes and other public transport. One caveat: each airline has its own rules regarding service dogs. Most require that the dog sits on the traveler’s lap or at their feet. Dogs cannot block the aisle or sit in the emergency exit row. Service dogs are exempt from the pet fees that airlines charge.

What Do Emotional Support Animals Do?

Emotional support dogs are not considered service dogs under the ADA. They may be trained for a specific owner, but they are not trained for specific tasks or duties to aid a person with a disability, and this is the main difference between ESAs and service dogs. This doesn’t minimize the support these dogs provide for people with a psychological disorder. They’re considered companion animals and ease anxiety, depression, some phobias, and loneliness.  In order to be considered an emotional support dog, it must be prescribed by a mental health professional for a patient with a diagnosed psychological or emotional disorder, such as anxiety disorder, major depression, or panic attacks.

What Rights Do Emotional Support Animals Have?

Unlike service dogs, ESAs have only limited legal rights and those typically require a letter of diagnosis from the owner’s doctor or psychiatrist. While they don’t have unlimited access to public spaces, the Fair Housing Act mandates “reasonable accommodations” for emotional support animals even in buildings that don’t allow pets. The Air Carrier Access Act requires airlines to allow ESAs on flights, but travelers must have a letter from a doctor or licensed therapist. There may be additional requirements as well. Because so many people abuse the concept of an emotional support animal, including the traveler who tried to bring an “emotional support peacock” on board a United Airlines flight, airlines are tightening restrictions on emotional support animals. We can expect other commercial and public spaces to follow.

What is a Therapy Dog?

Therapy dogs play a different helping role than service dogs and emotional support animals. They aren’t trained to live with a specific handler. Rather, these are dogs that — with their human teammate (often the dog’s owner) — volunteer in clinical settings, such as hospitals, mental health institutions, hospices, schools, and nursing homes, where they provide comfort, affection, and even love in the course of their work. Therapy dogs are trained to be comfortable in new environments and to interact with different people. They should have a calm temperament, be unfazed by unfamiliar noises and movements, be comfortable being handled, and love people.

Do Therapy Dogs Have Legal Rights?

Although they are defined as comfort dogs and often used in therapeutic settings, therapy dogs are not considered service dogs under the ADA and don’t have the same legal right to access in public spaces. There are no uniform state or national rules that regulate and certify therapy dogs, and different organizations have different guidelines. As a general rule, therapy dogs should be trained, insured, and licensed by the non-profit that’s offering their services.

Can My Dog Be a Therapy Dog?

If you’re interested in volunteering and think your dog may be a great candidate to be a therapy dog, organizations like the Alliance of Therapy Dogs test dog for their suitability and, if accepted, have guidelines that must be followed.

While it doesn’t certify therapy dogs, the AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) program offers their training program to organizations, and the CGC test is often a prerequisite required by therapy dog organizations.

Dolores (better known as Kelly) Wolff and her Shih Tzu, Miss Daisy, have been part of the Nor’wester Therapy Dog organization for the past eleven years. Kelly learned about our canine assisted learning program from another therapy dog handler while volunteering at Abington Hospital. Because Miss Daisy loves children so much, Kelly decided to join Nor’wester Therapy Dogs.               

Kelly is a native of Philadelphia, and was raised in North Wildwood, NJ. She graduated from Gwynedd-Mercy Academy and then went to the University of Pennsylvania for a degree as a dental hygienist.  After working in this profession for 10 1/2 years, marrying, and raising her two children, she decided, at the age of 38, to go back to school for a nursing degree. She attended Gwynedd-Mercy College where she acquired her BSN degree.  Kelly then went to work at Holy Redeemer Hospital as a Labor & Delivery nurse for 27 years. “I loved every minute of those 27 years,” says Kelly. 

Kelly has had dogs all her life. She grew up with large breed dogs such as German Shepherds, Collies, and Great Danes. She had Great Danes until 1994 when she lost her last Dane named Alex.  At that point she decided to move to a smaller breed and got a miniature French Poodle whom she named P.J. Wolff. P.J. delighted everyone with his intelligence and obedience, but succumbed, at age 12, to a non-operative tumor in his ear.  

Shortly after P.J.’s death, Kelly’s best friend convinced her that the Shih Tzu was a perfect breed for her.  She found a wonderful breeder of Shih Tzu dogs and was permitted to choose her puppy from a litter of five. Miss Daisy displayed her wonderful temperament at an early age. It was this that made Kelly decide to pursue therapy dog certification with her. 

Miss Daisy passed “with flying colors” and joined the Abington Hospital therapy dog program.  Occasionally they also visited a nursing home in Rydal, PA. Currently they add Rolling Hills Elementary School (Council Rock School District) to their list of therapy dog visits.  Miss Daisy is a “good listener” to the students in Mrs. Suzanne Swenson’s class. During the past two years, Kelly and Miss Daisy have added weekly visits to classes at Belmont Hills and Valley Elementary Schools in the Bensalem School District. 

“She is so eager to go to work,” relates Kelly. “She leads me to the classroom and wiggles her whole body when she sees her children. I know how much they love her from all the special stories they write about her.”   

When she is not doing therapy dog work, Kelly loves to travel. She says she got the “travel bug” from her father who was a Chief Steward on passenger liners. She feels fortunate that she has been able to travel extensively. Her other hobby is solving crossword puzzles. “I’m afraid I’m an addict,” she confesses.  

“Nor’wester Therapy Dogs is a wonderful organization,” says Kelly. “Our two directors make it what it is. They have new and exciting ideas, always with an eye to the future. This is an organization which keeps in close touch with its volunteers, not just once a year.” 

“Reading and learning with Miss Daisy has been a wonderful incentive for my reluctant students,” says Mrs. Swenson. “The dog’s presence is also a motivational reward for students with behavior problems.”   

Kelly and Miss Daisy are making a difference!

“IDEAS FOR INCORPORATING ANIMAL-ASSISTED INTERVENTIONS”  (taken from 101 Creative Ideas for Animal Assisted Therapy by Stacy Grover)

LET’S TALK:  A therapy dog team working under the direction of a professional can facilitate discussion on many topics.   

Commonalities: This is a very powerful metaphoric tool in the hands of skilled therapists. Using carefully selected children’s literature or actual or contrived stories about the animal, discuss feelings or situations that apply to the student’s needs/goals. Have the student identify times when (s)he has felt the same as the animal in the story. Then discuss helpful ways for the animal and the student to deal with those feelings.  

LEARNING:  There is a multitude of ways a therapy dog team can be used to enhance the educational environment.  

Research:  Have the student study the therapy dog and think of a question that could be answered by doing research. Students can research in books, online, through personal observation, and interviewing experts in the canine field. Examples of questions could be how dogs care for their young, their roles in packs, how they communicate with each other, the history of a specific breed, how their sense of smell works, and what is involved in training a dog to do therapy dog work.  After the research is completed the student can give an oral presentation, write a report, create a pamphlet, or develop a power point presentation to teach their audience what they learned about their topic.  

“SIX IDEAS FOR LITERACY MOTIVATION” (taken from the R.E.A.D. Manual, Intermountain Therapy Animals, Salt Lake City, Utah, 11^th edition, 2012) 

The Six C’s of Literacy Motivation:  Teachers often rely on therapy dog handlers to help reinforce these techniques while a student is reading to a therapy dog.  

CHOICE: Allow the student to select high-interest materials 

CHALLENGE:  Match materials to the child’s reading level, depending upon whether the child is reading independently or with support. 

CONTROL:  Let the student control the book, such as deciding when to turn the page, when to linger over an illustration, or when to stop and talk. 

COLLABORATION:  Approach reading with a “conspiratorial” attitude of “we’re in this together, we’re going to be successful in the challenge of learning to read well.” 

CONSTRUCTIVE COMPREHENSION: — Urge the student to keep making sense of what they read and pay attention to places where the student may become confused. 

CONSEQUENCES:  Demonstrate the positive outcomes of reading such as having something interesting to talk about, getting useful information, finding answers to questions, a sense of accomplishment, or interaction with the therapy dog.