Students at Oak Park and River Forest High School have been welcoming belly rubs and puppy dog tails as the high school’s therapy dog program celebrates its fifth year of bringing pooches into the halls.
The therapy dog program was started by Ginger Bencola, prevention and wellness coordinator at OPRF, who had long been interested in the field of therapy animals as an emerging field in social work.
“There is a growing body of research that talks about the mental and emotional wellness benefits for students and adults,” Bencola said.
Bencola said she wanted to bring those benefits to OPRF students.
According to the Alliance of Therapy Dogs, an organization that provides training and certification for dogs, therapy dogs have been found to increase the number of students attending classes, improve connections with peers and instructors, and improve communication skills among college students.
Bencola said she worked in partnership with school administrators, as well as the student activities department, and began reaching out to certified therapy dog organizations to begin coordinate visits.
“It has really grown from there and now we have folks reaching out to us,” Bencola said.
Therapy dogs are brought into the high school as part of addressing three different components, Bencola said. This includes during “high stress times,” such as end of the quarter and near finals.
Therapy dogs also come to the high school during lunch periods for “de-stress with dogs,” where students can stop by and hang out with them.
To support more higher-needs students, the school also has therapy dogs visit Special Education programs and the TEAM program, which is designed for students with mild, moderate, and severe intellectual disabilities.
Lauren Conway, a special education teacher working with the social emotional development program, said the dogs have been very uplifting for students in both special education and TEAM. Conway works those programs alongside Claire Downs, special education teacher at OPRF.
“It’s been a really wonderful partnership,” Conway said. “The students report lower stress and I have surveyed the students and they will say things like ‘oh I had a lab the next period but then I saw the dog and felt so much calmer and ready to tackle the challenges of my next class.’”
The high school also partners with Pet Partners and Healing Hearts Comfort Dogs.
Conway added that they have seen an increase in attendance, especially among students who struggle with “school refusal,” a disorder of a child who refuses to go to school on a regular basis or has problems staying in school, according to the National Institute of Health.
“Just telling them that the dog will be coming, we have better attendance on those days,” Conway said.
Right now, the dogs are coming to those programs about once a month. Over time, Bencola said, students become familiar with them and even ask for them by name.
One of the dogs who is well-known at OPRF is Chief, who visits with his handler Katie Trame, a volunteer with Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs Inc.
The five-year-old golden retriever began coming to OPRF towards the end of 2021.
Trame, who enrolled Chief in basic obedience training, decided to have Chief take the therapy dog training because of his naturally friendly personality.
“He is very people focused, he loves to get attention from people,” Trame said. “He is actually a very good dog in that he is not overly hyper and he loves to be pet. He can be very calm, very loving and he can also be very intuitive when it comes to people who might need extra attention.”
To be a therapy dog, Chief trained to be used to being around loud noises, medical equipment, and around other dogs without interacting, as well as leaving food alone, and handling different ways that people could greet him with.
Trame and Chief also volunteer at other local schools in the Downers Grove community.
At OPRF High School, Chief has visited classrooms, as well as made rounds during finals week and at the end of the semester.
“Usually, they [the students] are very excited,” Trame said. “A lot of them will say ‘this is the best day ever!’ when it’s time for them to move on, to give another group time, they get disappointed.”
Conway said being around the therapy dogs has also been beneficial with special education students as it helps them work on different skills including communication skills, greeting with their assisted technology, practice walking the dogs, giving commands, and even working through their fear of dogs.
“Bringing the therapy dogs in, we have been able to work with those students on addressing those fears,” Conway said. “Parents have expressed what an enormous difference that has made for their child to be able to feel safer and more comfortable in various community spaces.”
Bencola said the school climate has also become warmer and more supportive since the dogs have been coming to the high school.
“They light up the room when they come in,” Conway said. “Whether you are an adult or a kid, who can’t help but smile when one of the wagging therapy dogs comes up to you. You can feel the smiles and the joy in the room when they come in.”