Savannah Weishaar
Reporter
Parkland College puts a temporary ban on therapy dogs for not yet being officially certified.
Nia Klein, part-time English faculty at Parkland, brought in her therapy dog Taylor, and a fellow therapy dog Brinkley to comfort students who had been watching a difficult documentary for several days in a Liberal Arts Science Class. While Klein had gotten approval to bring the dogs from Public Safety, when Parkland’s Health and Wellness Coordinator caught wind of it the dogs were banned from the college.
It is important to note the difference between therapy dogs and service dogs. Service dogs accompany a person for specific medical reasons. According to usdogregistry.org some disabilities that service dogs are used for include blindness, epilepsy, PTSD, and autism. Service dogs are welcome in most public places including Parkland. In fact, there are flyers at the college reminding students not to distract or pet service dogs as they are ‘working’. Therapy dogs on the other hand, are mainly used for emotional comfort and support and are meant to be cuddled, petted, and talked to. Klein said “The shooting at Parkland in Florida–when the students came back there was a whole bunch of therapy dogs waiting for them. Sometimes they go to hospitals and offer comfort to patients– especially children– and nursing homes is another big thing.”
For the short time that Taylor and Brinkley were at Parkland they made a large impact. “When we walked through the halls, the number of students who wanted to interact with Taylor and the other dog Brinkley– there were a ton of them and every single one of them had this big smile on their faces and you could tell that it just kind of relaxed them and made them feel less stressed. We actually walked by one who we could tell was just studying studying studying apparently for a test and she looked up and saw the dogs and said ‘Can I pet them?’ and she did and you could just tell her whole stress level went down and she even said ‘Okay now I feel better. I can focus more on my studying,’” Klein said.
Since these dogs seem like such a positive influence on students, why were they banned from Parkland? When asked if the only reason Taylor and Brinkley were banned was due to their lack of certification Klein said, “That’s what we are told. That he has to formally pass his therapy dog certification and get registered with one of the therapy dog organizations. However, in order to pass …. he has to do a lot of practice in the settings that he’s going to be working in… He’s not going to get it here. I will have to find other ways of doing it.”
While a therapy dogs main purpose is to provide comfort and support, they still have to go through extensive training to get officially certified. Taylor will soon be going to class with his trainer at the local behavioral health facility, “The first thing he had to pass was his AKC CGC (American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen) exam and he passed that. So tonight is the Advanced Behavioral AKC Certification, once he passes that he will be in actual therapy dog class. Our trainer has some connection with The Pavilion so he will be going to therapy groups at The Pavilion and learning how to comfort those patients there.” said Klein.
Although it seems Taylor has a little ways to go until he is Therapy Dog certified, Klein is hopeful that he will be able to make a return to Parkland to assist students in the near future, “I think he can provide a lot of stress relief for students especially during midterms and finals. He could be available in Student Life and the Counseling Center.”
In the meantime, Parkland students will patiently await for the return of their furry friend Taylor.
