Voice: January 2016 

This story is part of a regular series, "Learning Lessons: Great ideas, Great schools," that features educators who are doing great things or conducting great programs in Pennsylvania’s public schools. For other stories in the series go to www.psea.org/learninglessons.

Harry was one of the first therapy dogs to be placed in a classroom at the Cedar Run emotional support facility in Cumberland County.   

There he met a female high school student with school phobia. Just getting her into the building and settled in her classroom was a success in and of itself. 

The class began with daily journal writing. Students could respond to a prompt or write about anything they felt they needed to get out. As this particular girl wrote in her journal, Harry went to her and placed his head in her lap.

Patti Chasteen, a high school emotional support teacher who has been with the program since it began, didn’t question it. But once she read the girl’s journal, she realized the power and intuition Harry had that day.

The girl had written of her plans to commit suicide. But when Harry put his head in her lap, she said it made her feel better. The dog sensed the student was struggling before Chasteen even knew. 

“These dogs have amazing powers with these kids,” she said. 

A magic wand

Tracy Geist, a social worker at the Capital Area Intermediate Unit in the Harrisburg area, has a history of using animal-assisted therapy with students.

Prior to her work at Hill Top Academy, a special education school for students with various psychiatric disorders which the IU opened when the Cedar Run facility closed, Geist served as director of the student assistance program at Keystone Children and Family Services. There she worked alongside the Keystone-owned company, Susquehanna Service Dogs.

After seeing the way a therapy dog brought comfort to students, and even staff, after they witnessed a fatal accident, Geist was convinced the therapy dog was the magic wand she had been searching for as a social worker.

She first brought Harry to an all-girls class when he was a puppy. These students were at high risk for teen pregnancy, and Geist and Chasteen, who both work for the IU, thought raising the puppy would help teach the girls responsibility and provide the unconditional love they were seeking from a child.

Harry started out as a sick puppy, diagnosed with a serious virus, so he had many accidents in the classroom, Geist said. The students would have to stop what they were doing to take Harry out and clean up his messes. In the first three years with the dog, there were no pregnancies in the class. Harry, who was placed with a boy with muscular dystrophy after being raised by the all-girls class, recently passed away. His sister, Scarlet, continues to work with students at Hill Top Academy.

Geist’s original goal when Hill Top opened in 2008 was to have a dog in every classroom. But with an influx of students, the school grew too fast, she said. And while most teachers are supportive, the program is an added responsibility.

“There are 40 hours of training initially to become a dog handler, and then five hours every year,” Geist said. “The teachers who have made the commitment will say it’s so worth it.”

Dogs are placed in the most stable classrooms. This ensures that the dog is safe and also provides a goal for those having a difficult time with behavior.

Students are responsible for taking care of the dogs – taking them out to go to the bathroom, feeding them, and giving them unconditional love. At the end of the day, the dogs go home either with the classroom teacher or another staff member. The school has seven dogs in total, mostly Labrador retrievers and one golden retriever.

Value beyond words

In 2013, Geist completed a doctoral dissertation exploring the therapeutic elements that operate between therapy dogs and students with mental health disorders. The findings, she said, were very interesting.

“Dogs absolutely have a therapeutic and emotional effect,” she said. “A lot of our kids have attachment, trauma, abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder issues. There are a few kids who have experienced a flashback, and staff wouldn’t know, but the dog would. The dog would lay it’s head on the student’s lap, almost as if to say, ‘It’s OK. You’re here, not there.’ Several of our dogs have been trained for veterans and know to alert staff when kids are stressing or struggling.”

Chasteen said the dog is like having another aide in the classroom.

“They have a little bit of innateness. They can sense things,” she said.

Geist agreed: “When the dogs can intervene before we do, it keeps the student from going into a meltdown. For some students, academic stress is a trigger. A lot of them are so far behind in school, and the dog is a motivator to try and overcome a frustrating academic challenge.”

Some students at Hill Top have trust issues with adults, which can make it hard for teachers to reach them when they are struggling. While the students aren’t allowed to be with the dog without an adult present, they often feel like they can talk with the dog more than an adult.

“The dog becomes a bridge to healing with the human,” Geist said. “They will tell the dog what is going on in their lives, and they become more open. Dogs help emotionally and academically, as grades and attendance improve. The dogs provide comic relief, and the students want to take care of them.”

Geist would recommend the therapy dog program for anyone working with students with mental health issues.

“They are miracle workers,” she said. 

Tip Sheet
For school districts looking to implement something similar, Tracy Geist from the Capital Area IU provides advice.

   • Find a program to emulate. Take a tour. Instead of reinventing the wheel, other schools have established programs based on Hill Top Academy’s training manual.

   • Read existing research. Learn as much as you can about animal-assisted therapies and interventions.  

   • Go through a service dog organization. This is a way to ensure your dogs are highly qualified, highly trained, and have public access. They provide the training for teachers as well, and will give you the extra assurance of safety for the dog and students.