‘It really does help turn their mood around’: More Lancaster County schools welcome service dogs

• By Lucy Albright/LNP | LancasterOnline

A bear is the official mascot, but Murphy the dog is clearly the more popular animal at Elizabethtown Area High School.

Ignoring the giant stuffed bear in the hallway, students with iced coffees in hand stop to pet Murphy on their way to homeroom.

“Taking him anywhere and trying to get from point A to point B, you would literally think I was with a mini celebrity,” said Amy Robinson, a counselor at the high school.

The 4-year-old black Labrador retriever is one of the district’s three facility dogs. The work of a facility dog, which is a type of service dog assigned to a school or other facility, varies from school to school and can include educational support as well as mental health crisis response.

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At least 10 of Lancaster County’s 16 public school districts, including Elizabethtown Area, have a service dogs program or are close to starting one, joining a trend that has swept the nation. While statistics on the number of dogs serving in public schools is unclear, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that the number is rising, and also studies that show the dogs do help students address and prevent mental health and learning issues, which is why educational professionals are increasingly interested in bringing dogs into schools. It appears that the trend toward dog programs has been given a boost in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when an increasing number of issues were documented among school-age children.

Most of the service dogs at Lancaster County public school districts are facility dogs trained to perform specific skilled tasks for people in a residential or clinical setting.

Murphy came from the United Disabilities Services Foundation, an East Hempfield Township-based nonprofit that offers a range of services for people with disabilities. While UDS trains service dogs for physically disabled and autistic individuals, it also offers facility dogs for schools.

Lori Breece, manager of the UDS service dogs program, said schools have been increasingly opting for facility dogs. She said 27 of the UDS canines work as facility dogs at schools in Pennsylvania, with 20 schools on a waiting list to get one. Around eight of the foundation’s facility dogs have been placed at schools in Lancaster County, Breece said.

‘It really does help turn their mood around’

On a typical day, Murphy greets incoming students in the morning with Robinson, his primary handler who cares for him outside of school hours. Then, he’ll go to class with one of his other handlers, a teacher at the high school.

Robinson said sometimes other teachers will request Murphy for the day of a test, “just to kind of get the test-day jitters out.” When Murphy’s in class, she said, students can pet him during breaks.

Murphy also hangs out in Robinson’s counseling office while she meets with students, or in head school nurse Brandon Aukamp’s office.

Aukamp, who also is the district’s health services coordinator, said if kids come in with high anxiety, they can spend some time with Murphy.

“And it really does help turn their mood around and their mental health status, and it really does help them get back to class and continue their learning,” he said.

Aukamp said when he started working at the high school in 2014 he noticed issues with student anxiety, adding that in some cases it was so bad he had to send kids home. He said he remembers thinking a pet of some kind would be helpful, which led him to propose the idea of a facility dog in 2018.

District spokesperson Troy Portser said the facility dog program was approved in 2019. The district currently has three dogs, all Labradors.

The annual cost of maintaining Elizabethtown Area’s current facility dogs program is between $9,000 and $12,000, and is funded by grants and private donations, Portser said. That price tag includes food, toys, medicine and veterinary care for the animals.

The initial cost to purchase each dog was $5,000 and was also covered by grants and donations, Portser said. And while the handlers are not paid, he said there is no out-of-pocket cost to them.

‘A pretty tough sell’

Kristin Glass, a school psychologist at Lampeter-Strasburg High School, has seen the benefits of facility dogs. Lampeter-Strasburg School District brought in its first facility dog, Maya, in 2016.

Glass told the story of a student who experienced panic attacks and how it could take 30 to 45 minutes for the student to calm down. Glass said when she brought Maya to the student, the dog would help the student feel better — and get back to class — within 10 minutes.

Glass said using her training in deep pressure techniques, Maya would sometimes lie on the student’s chest. Or she’d lick the student’s face, which Glass said would make the student laugh — plus make the student think about her breathing.

Like Murphy in Elizabethtown, Maya spends some of her time in classrooms — both special education and general education. Maya is good at noticing when people are anxious, Glass said.

“Sometimes she outs me when I get anxious, which I wish she wouldn’t,” Glass said.

Glass said Lampeter-Strasburg’s facility dogs program came about after two students in the district died by suicide. In response to the deaths, she and teacher Lisa Boone started a chapter of Aevidum, a nonprofit that aims to raise awareness about suicide and mental health in students.

Glass proposed the idea of getting a facility dog, and students presented the plan to the school board and helped raise money to get the first dog.

“When we first started, it was a pretty tough sell,” Glass said of the facility dog initiative.

But after people saw Maya’s effect, she said it was quicker for other schools in her district to get dogs. Maya and the three other dogs in the district are Labradors and were trained by Susquehanna Service Dogs in East Hanover, Lebanon County.

Glass said the district’s facility dog program is paid for entirely through donations and fundraising efforts, and the funds go towards supplies and food used while the dogs are at school, and on a case-by-case basis to veterinary care. Handlers pay for the meals the dogs eat while staying in their homes, and cover the cost of basic vet care, Glass said.

While the initial cost of a trained dog is $5,000, the annual cost of the program varies, Glass said. During the 2021-2022 school year, the facility dog program cost $470. The following school year was $1,115. That higher cost was due to additional vet care, Glass said.

Destined to be a pet

Lampeter-Strasburg and Elizabethtown Area aren’t the only school districts opting for facility dogs. Others, like Warwick and Conestoga Valley, have started programs as well. And back in March, Ephrata Area School District approved $18,200 for a program involving two facility dogs trained by Pequea Township-based company Dog Sense LLC.

Wendy Jordan, dog trainer and owner of Dog Sense, said therapy and facility dogs can decrease anxiety and depression, lower blood pressure and improve mood. In turn, this can improve students’ relationships with peers and staff.

Jordan said facility dogs can also improve confidence and attention, as well as literacy. Some schools use dogs in reading programs, where students read aloud to the animals. To kids, the dog is a nonjudgemental presence, and is just sitting there and listening, she said.

For Elsie, a facility dog at Conestoga Valley’s Brownstown Elementary, that type of reading practice is one part of the job. Elsie’s days can also include visiting the counselor’s office, greeting students in the lobby and helping calm kids who are in crisis.

“Dogs always make everyone feel better and make everyone smile, so they’re really good for helping calm kids down, boost morale,” her handler, Christine Colantoni, said.

Colantoni, a speech-language pathologist, provides speech therapy to students throughout the day. Elsie usually sits in on these sessions, she said, and petting the dog can be a reward for students after they complete their work. Colantoni said that Elsie’s presence makes kids want to go to speech therapy more than they otherwise might.

Unlike Murphy, Conestoga Valley School District’s two facility dogs — Elsie and Coco — are owner-trained. While other UDS puppies go through a process that includes eight months of training with inmates at SCI Houtzdale state prison in Clearfield County, Elsie started her life destined to be a pet.

When Conestoga Valley wanted to start a facility dog program in 2021, Colantoni volunteered her black labradoodle puppy. Elsie, who had a calm temperament and seemed suited for the job, went through testing and began weekly classes at UDS, Colantoni said.

Elsie started working at Brownstown in fall 2021 as a facility dog in training, according to Colantoni. Elsie and the goldendoodle Coco graduated from the training program in October, earning their purple facility dog vests, she said.

Colantoni said that she pays for Elsie’s upkeep herself. The one-time training costs were between $3,500 and $5,000 per dog, according to district spokesperson Kathryn O’Dell. The district used federal money from the School-Based ACCESS Program, O’Dell said. The program allows school districts to be reimbursed for health-related services.

‘Part of the fabric’

Back at Elizabethtown, Murphy’s impact has been felt beyond the school and its students. Robinson, Murphy’s handler, takes the dog to community events to promote the program. She said parents will approach her and ask to pet Murphy, or tell her they’ve heard stories from their kids about the dog.

And it’s not just students who benefit from Murphy’s presence in the school. Robinson said that staff members sometimes come into her office to snuggle with Murphy.

“Murphy is part of — I think — the identity of our high school now, part of the fabric. Like something that these kids look forward to in the morning coming in,” district spokesperson Portser said.

One tradition illustrates this especially well: on Murphy’s birthday, he gets a special honor from the choir students.

In a Facebook video from March 2023, Murphy is wearing a shiny party hat as a group of high schoolers sing to him.

“Happy birthday to you!” they sing, accompanied by jazzy piano chords. “Happy birthday to you! Little baby Murphy. Little baby Murphy!”