{"id":29871,"date":"2020-02-29T16:19:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T16:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/news\/?p=29871"},"modified":"2020-02-29T16:19:45","modified_gmt":"2020-02-29T16:19:45","slug":"dog-for-therapy-adopted-by-east-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/dog-for-therapy-adopted-by-east-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Dog for therapy routine adopted by East Moline\u00a0Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The use of dog for therapy in schools is now becoming a trend in the United States, and have tremendously increased in the East Moline School District 37.<\/strong><br \/>\nIn Glenview Middle School, seventh-grader Evan Schillinger noted that Tinker, a large golden retriever, which belongs to their counselor, reduces his stress and calms him down.<br \/>\n<strong>The dog lover added that the thought of having Tinker at school gives him something to look forward to.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Counselor of the school, Shannon Harmon, noted that with Tinker at the school, there had been a lot of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/news\/education-budget-cut-mental-health\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">positivity<\/a>. There has also been an additional excitement whenever she&#8217;s around.<\/strong><br \/>\nOther students who also see Harmon regularly have observed great value in having Tinker around.<br \/>\nThe kids are aware of the days the dog is there, and they come in on those days to say &#8216;hi&#8217;. This, in turn, helps kids form relationships at school.<br \/>\nAlso, when the kids are depressed about something, she calms them down, and their breathing starts to flow, they begin to talk slower and quieter, Harmon noted.<br \/>\nNot only does Tinker help the kids alone, but it also allows teachers too because they all say, &#8220;I just need some Tinker Time.&#8221;<br \/>\nTinker has been at Glenview since before Thanksgiving, and she usually attends school three to four times a week.<br \/>\nAnother seventh-grader, Cameron Vroman, expressed her joy towards the use of dog for therapy. She said petting Tinker is relieving their stress as well, and that makes the school a better place.<\/p>\n<h2>Positive basis for adopting dogs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>The positive review of adopting dogs for therapy usage seems to have caught the attention of people. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emsd37.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According<\/a> to Superintendent Kristin Humphries, every school should have therapy dogs.<\/strong><br \/>\nHe said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;It changes the tenor of a building,&#8221; Humphries said. &#8220;It really can help kids calm down in different ways. I think animals, especially dogs, make people feel good.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Tinker had spent six months at Ellsworth Correctional Facility in Kansas being trained by inmates on necessary obedience skills.<br \/>\nShe after that spent a year and a half with a foster family and a trainer named Mitch, acquiring her public manners.<br \/>\n<strong>Then Tinker, who was part of the CARES (Canine, Assistance Rehabilitation Education and Service) Program, was offered to Harmon, who also had to spend a week with her passing a public access test and getting certified in Kansas.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Other schools following the dog for therapy step<\/h2>\n<p><strong>An elementary and middle school district, District 37 now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.animalauthority.com\/best-therapy-dogs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">use dog for therapy<\/a> in two of its six schools; Hillcrest Elementary School and Glenview Middle.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Another therapy dog, Roxi, which was trained by Quad-Cities Canine Assistance Network, has been placed at Hillcrest Elementary School.<\/strong><br \/>\nHer handler, counselor Alisha Welvaert noted that before Hillcrest, Roxi, had visited libraries, nursing homes, and colleges. Therefore, coming to a school has been a simple change for her.<br \/>\nRoxi is a Labradoodle and has been at Hillcrest for just two days a week during her first two weeks.<br \/>\nWelvaert noted earlier in February that everything is going on well, as Roxi is involved in both individual and group counseling sessions.<br \/>\n<strong>In addition, she is helping a particular student deal with grief. Welvaert added that coming for counseling and petting, a dog releases endorphins in the brain, and this helps to have a calming effect.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>In summary, it has been noticed that these dogs establish a positive mood at the schools, and using these dogs for therapy can be used to encourage kids to practice a right attitude.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The use of dog for therapy in schools is now becoming a trend in the United States, and have tremendously increased in the East Moline School District 37. In Glenview Middle School, seventh-grader Evan Schillinger noted that Tinker, a large golden retriever, which belongs to their counselor, reduces his stress and calms him down. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":29872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29871"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}