Interview with the Therapy Dogs

“What’s more stressful than math?” Ms. Elmore, a math teacher, the school’s assistant athletic director, and therapy dog Archie’s owner, says with a laugh. Ms. Feudo, the owner of the school’s other therapy dog, Sookie, agrees that she “could've used a therapy dog in math in high school.” 

And it seems that many students also agree. As Ms. Feudo points out, “If one student is having a tough day, they seek out the dog.” 

Becoming a therapy dog isn’t an easy process. It requires a dog and handler pair to pass tests and complete training. Ms. Feudo says that she had “to pass two tests, [the] first is training in classroom settings and then they have to pass the Canine Good Citizenship Test.” After passing these tests, the dogs start therapy dog training, which takes place in the community. Ms. Elmore and Archie trained in “Tractor Supply, Home Depot, [and] outdoors”, and she often takes Archie to the grocery store with her. 

Once training is completed, the dogs take a test “similar to a service dog test, except they don’t have to be able to perform a specific skill, like helping you cross the street or detecting low glucose levels,” Ms. Feudo says. 

After passing the test, the dogs are certified, and can begin working to help people, spending time in schools, in Archie and Sookie’s case, and comforting students. 

“I love seeing how good Archie makes others feel,” Ms. Elmore says, “I’ve had more than one occasion where a kid is getting overwhelmed and often Archie has gotten borrowed. He can take a kid who just can’t even verbalize what is wrong but they can just pet and process it themselves.”

Archie and Sookie are familiar faces around LHS, but they weren’t always here. 

“Between a full teaching job and as assistant athletic director, I’m never home so if I couldn’t have a dog that came with me- I shouldn’t have a dog. During COVID I actively started looking for a dog knowing I’d have an extended period of time for training them. The breeder interviewed the people that were going to be taking the puppies and matched up the personality traits of the puppies to the families. And she did a perfect job,” Ms. Elmore says, adding that she had wanted to have a therapy dog even before she got one. 

Ms. Feudo was inspired by Achie and Ms. Elmore, but also by an incident when she was walking Sookie on the beach. “Sookie sat down in front of a woman who was sitting on a bench, and when she looked up, I saw that she was crying. I apologized and she said “No, can I pet your dog?” and Sookie moved and leaned on her leg. She was petting her for 20 minutes. The woman said to me “I’m crying because my other leg, which your dog has not gone near, I have a new brace and I’m here to break it in, and it’s painful. And I feel like your dog knew I needed this” That’s when I knew I needed to give it a try,” she says. 

Therapy dogs are great for helping students, but what happens if a student is afraid of, or allergic to, the dogs? Ms. Feudo says that they ask if students are comfortable with the dogs approaching them.

“I have had a couple of kids here that were afraid of Archie at first and we were very careful. They didn't mind being in the same room. I think he can sense when a kid is uncomfortable and he doesn't do a whole lot of sniffing. At the end of the year, both of those students were willing to touch him,” Ms. Elmore adds, “One of the high school level advantages we have opposed to like Shaker Lane or Russell Street is that they can advocate for themselves.”

Special thanks to Ms Elmore and Ms Feudo for taking the time to answer our questions and for bringing their dogs to our school!