The first week in March 2020 was designated as “Reading Across Holland Elementary School Week.” Howard Barkan, better known to the kids as Mr. Howard, volunteers with his therapy dog Winnie in a third grade class taught by Kelly Burdette and Amanda Vierick.  When Mr. Howard and Winne walked into the classroom on Wednesday of that week, he was so surprised! The students in the class had collaborated on a book to present to Mr. Howard and Winnie as part of the “Acts of Kindness Day” which they had celebrated the day before. On the cover of the book the kids had written “Thanks for always being so kind,” and “Mr. Howard & Winnie Rock!”  Inside, were 20 letters of appreciation from the students in the class.

When Winnie and Mr. Howard do their weekly visit, usually only 5-6 students read to them, but on this special day everyone who had contributed to the book read their letter aloud to them!  While Winnie maintained her usual nonchalant behavior, Mr. Howard was clearly surprised and overwhelmed with the celebration and expression of appreciation; just look at that huge smile on his face. THIS is what makes therapy dog work so enriching for volunteers.

We hope you enjoy reading a few of the letters written by the students. Winnie and Mr. Howard are looking forward to the day when they can return to their weekly visits to their third grade class at Holland Elementary School.

Also a couple of regular pictures from a different day.  Just because.

At Halloween, Mr. Nelson brought Bubba’s costume to class in a bag.  The students had clues to guess what the costume was. They were eventually able to guess that Bubba was going to dress up as a super hero (Super Bubba).  They were thrilled when Bubba put on his cape, and each student had their picture taken with him. These pictures were then added to paragraphs they wrote about Bubba.  The information collected during the first class visit and interview was used to write an informative paragraph about Bubba.

Dominic Whiteman wrote:

Bubba is my new best friend. Bubba is an 11 year Golden Retriever who works as a therapy dog. It took one year to train to be a therapy dog. Bubba likes to take walks in the forest and bark at the squirrels and deer.  I get excited when I see Bubba come through our classroom door!

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Jen Cook

Maple Point Middle School

“I have a student in my special education classroom that can be considered “non-verbal”. Only when prompted does she use expressive language, but spontaneous expressive language continues to be an IEP (Individual Educational Prescription) goal of hers. After a third weekly visit from Karen and Brigg, this student shared more detailed information about her own two dogs and their size and color without more than two prompts from me. 

After the visit was over and Karen and Brigg left our classroom, on two different occasions that afternoon, she spontaneously requested “Help?” and “Can I use the bathroom?” without being prompted. This is a goal she is working on, and this is the first time this year she has done this.

I link this increase in independent communication directly to the therapeutic rapport a student with special needs establishes with a therapy dog like Brigg. There is truly something magical about the relationship between student and therapy dog from a very early point in the visits to the classroom. The calm, non-judgmental demeanor the therapy dog brings to the classroom, provides the students with the patience and security they need to take risks (like speak unprompted or read aloud). The students are accepted, not judged, and are seen as a child, not a disability.

I have had the pleasure of working with a Nor’wester therapy dog and handler for five years. I have success stories like this almost every year. 

Thank you so much Karen and Brigg. This is why this program is so important.”

Your forever supporter and teacher,

KV

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.)

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! 

“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.  

Maria Alden, retired third grade teacher from Maureen M. Welch Elementary in Council Rock School District, hosted a black Lab therapy dog for five years. She created a therapy dog related activity which helped motivate her children throughout the year. 

Maria purchased an inexpensive black Lab statue at the Dollar Store and introduced it to her class at the beginning of the year. The class then voted what to call the dog, and Hershey was the winning name. 

Maria explained that Hershey would accompany a student in the class home each weekend, and she would base her selection on each child’s social and academic performance that week. In some cases, the privilege was used as motivation for children with specific educational or behavioral challenges. 

The lucky student was required to keep and submit a journal of the dog’s weekend with the child’s family which was also shared with the class.  Most students hand wrote their journal and included photographs. 

Student KB chose to put her newly learned Power Point skills to use and submitted this account of Hershey’s December weekend with her. As you can see, it was a full and exciting one!  

HERSHEY’S DIARY – My Weekend with KB 

This weekend I went to KB’s house. I was very excited because I like to go to my friends’ houses.   KB mentioned that there will be a surprise. I can’t wait to see what it is. KB’s family decorated the tree already.

I found a decoration that looks like a gingerbread letter K.   I also got to ride a Christmas train. 

On Saturday, I went to gymnastics practice with KB and really liked it. All the girls were such hard workers.    I loved their sparkly competition leotards. So, I was thinking… Maybe I can get one too if I practice as hard! 

I also helped KB to wrap holiday gifts…  and met her friends. I had tea with Barbie and her friends in their doll house…  And played dress up with them…   

On Sunday, I finally learned what the surprise was – we were going to see the Nutcracker Ballet!!!  

The theater was like a palace, and I got my own Playbill.   KB mentioned that there was a seven headed Mouse King in the performance, and I was a bit scared, but I promised not to bark.    During intermission KB and I went to see the orchestra pit. KB pointed out several instruments to me. The second part was not scary at all. Can you guess my favorite dance? Maybe you think it was the Sugarplum Fairy? She is very pretty but not my favorite…  Maybe you think it was the Candy Cane? He was very cool, but it is still not it. My favorite dance was HOT CHOCOLATE!!! Yummy!!! So I was thinking… Maybe I can also become a ballerina? 

They can surely use a Hershey for their Hot Chocolate dance!!! I can’t wait to tell all my friends at school about my weekend with KB. We had a lot of fun!  

**Nor’wester Note:  Our host teachers are always thinking outside the box and using our therapy dogs in many wonderful ways to challenge, motivate, and make learning fun for their students .

Nor’wester’s public library liaison & coordinator, Lynn Lenz, worked with librarians Sarah Ravapinto and Christy Lazzarino to offer a six week vacation program of READ TO THE DOGS at the Richboro public library. The program started on June 27^th and ran weekly on Thursdays through August 8^th. Therapy dogs were provided by the Nor’wester organization and drew a large crowd each week. A special thank you to Lynn Lenz, the librarians, and all the therapy dog teams who joined the children and their parents for a relaxing and enjoyable reading hour.

Sarah Ravapinto, Lynn Lenz, Christy Lazzarino (left to right)

Reading to Cooper who makes a great pillow

Kerrigan listens to a good book

Elizabeth Hayes and Rachel, the Bearded Collie, helped give confidence to their readers

Howard Barkan and Winnie enjoy hearing a story

Judy Eckenrode and her Border Collie, Casey, are library regulars and can always be found in the children’s corner on Read to the Dogs days.

Kelly Wolff and Miss Daisy have been volunteering with the Nor’wester organization for eleven years and love spending time with children.