One local principal went above and beyond for his students this school year. Ryan Kranz, Principal of Holy Name Catholic School in Pembroke and Kat Forder Director of the Facility Dog Program at Fire Team K9 Service Dogs in Pembroke came together to create a new program for the entire school. The dogs weren’t closed off to one classroom but instead were welcomed in every grade and class kindergarten to grade six.
Kranz told myFM that he thought bringing in the k9 Assisted Learning Program to the school would be a fun learning and stress free environment for his students. Forder added that it was beneficial to the dogs as well as they would get more experience with their training and overall it was a success.
Facility dogs are working dogs that are trained to the same high standards that service dogs are trained to, plus they learn additional skills to allow them to work in some pretty specialized environments. Besides their work supporting people experiencing stressful work environments (teachers) the facility dogs have an education curriculum designed to enhance classroom learning.
This year students wrote and illustrated stories about the dogs, played memory games, read out loud, did art projects, word searches and more with the dogs. Along the way students made some pretty incredible friendships as well, according to Forder. A favourite activity to do with the dogs according to the students was baking, which helped them with counting, measurements, instructions and more. Forder adds that the students get so much out of this program and it’s not just in the classroom.
Kranz noted that seeing how anxious the students are in September compared to after the dogs visit is incredible. He knows that school can be a scary place and filled with stress and having these dogs visit classrooms has helped numerous students break out of their shells and start to enjoy school and learning.
Going forward Kranz knows he wants this to continue as it has been nothing but success and Forder states that this program could benefit other schools all over especially in the Ottawa Valley.
The five dogs that visited the school are: Chopper and Tilley who are Poodles, Professor Plum and Emit who are Great Danes and Daisey the Lab. Kranz added that each dog has a unique personality and would sometimes show up in costumes, which made the entire experience even better.
(Written by: Emma Butler)