| Therapy Dog Articles: TAZ Goes To School
by Pat Policastro |
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| After reading reports and research on therapy dogs, I felt I would like to try my favorite breed in the classroom. I also wanted an excuse to get another Doberman, but still have the pleasure of spending time every day with it. Knowing that I could apply for a grant to validate the pet in my special education classroom, I sought and received approval from the Principal and Assistant Superintendent. Having taken into the classroom lost animals, I had observed that many students did not know how to respond to an animal in order to obtain affection or attention. In describing how I have raised my animals, the students were amazed at the amount of time and effort involved. The proposal to teach respect and responsibility through helping to raise the puppy was accepted. I felt that the kids in my class for Seriously Emotionally Disturbed Junior Students might like to have someone at school that is always happy to see them. My first attempt was to bring a 10 week old red male Doberman into the class, but this puppy was very shy and even growled at some of the kids. I tried another from the same litter and again experienced a temperament that I did not want seen at school to be representative of the Doberman. |
Lemil's Midnight Devil, "Taz" |
Taz relaxing with one of his buddies |
The puppies were not at all self assured and confident and
acted more like my students than a puppy. I then visited Michelle
Lewis looking for a black, show quality bitch and instead
came home with a marvelously happy, little black male. Every
morning "Taz" (LeMils Midnight Devil) jumps from the car and
runs to the classroom to wait for his water and for me to
get organized. We then go to the office and he greets the
Principal's secretary and the Attendance Clerk, who always
has some treat ready for him. What a fan club this boy quickly
developed.
I did a presentation on video for the school news program explaining why he was on campus and invited kids to come and visit during their lunch. Well Taz has a morning, lunch and after school set of "groupies." Staff and students quickly learned that Taz and his happy tail were always happy to see them. They also learned that typical of Doberman, but not their reputation, Taz is an affectionate, intelligent, lap dog. His job at Taylor was to show kids what was involved in being responsible for a living being other than themselves. One of my more severe students was having problems in PE and I thought I would have to remove him from PE. However, I decided to try a written contract that would allow the student to walk Taz every day that he earned an appropriate score in PE. I could not believe I had a student willing to clean up after the dog as a reward, but being with this dog meant a lot to this student. He managed to finish the school year keeping the PE class and actually earned a "B." Besides being a wonderful ambassador for the Doberman breed, this project taught me that temperament does come with careful breeding. Environment can influence the stability of the dog, but personality and temperament are part of the total package that is bred into the puppy. School portraits were taken of Taz, and when the kids saw these many asked to have him in theirs. Daily, he visited classes during homeroom to meet the 1,200 students of Taylor Junior High, and never once was seen on campus without the tail he is so well known for. The last day of school Taz signed over 300 yearbooks. Students were lined up outside our classroom waiting for the infamous paw print. After a while, he actually put his paw down on their books without my help. Presently, Taz is helping me teach English in summer school and is gathering a new set of friends. At least once a week some member of this year's fan club stops by campus just to take him for a walk. |
Taz signing yearbooks |
Taz signing yearbooks |
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The Third Generation Goes to School
Joe and Pat Policastro Our litter named for "Ski" areas was whelped on February 20, 1999. We had seven puppies (4 Males, 3 Females). The sire was Am./Int. Ch. Lemils Midnight Devil (Taz) CDX, ROM, CGC, ThD. and the dam was Int. Ch. Acoma Impress Me WAC, CGC. ThD. (Sara). Our goal was to breed Dobermans with an emphasis on therapy work especially with children who have emotional and physical limitations. To validate achievement of our goal and set the foundation for a longitudinal study of genetic traits, we keep three dogs from the litter -- Tazzmans Nite Hawk, Angel Fire and Valle Bleu. We had planned to keep only two but "Bleu" was returned to us because the new owner had breast cancer and could not handle the treatment and a new puppy at the same time. The remaining four were sold to companion homes and to owners that get together each week on Saturday for puppy obedience training, grooming, socialization and just general discussion of dogs and things, etc. We offer this training as a free service to the new owners because we believe that bonding between them and the pups is critical to establishing a long-term relationship and besides we get to follow the litter and make new friends. It certainly is a "win-win" for all involved. With the exception of "Lexi" who went to New York at 8 weeks to support her Mom while they visited and cared for a very sick Grandma, we raised this litter in our house till they were all 12 weeks old. The new owners came each week to play with the entire litter and learn about Dobermans, conformation and these pups. We were blessed with a unique group of owners who we told up front that we would not make a decision on which dogs we were going to keep until 8 weeks of age. In addition, we attempted to help them pick a puppy based on their and the pups personalities, their life style, their planned use i.e. agility, couch potato, availability of time to train a Doberman, etc. All of them agreed to these conditions and they reserved their pick order by signing a contract to purchase the dog. The first to sign received the first pick after our choices. This worked out well and it eliminated impulse decisions and they came to understand that each dog was a quality animal from superb backgrounds. The new owners understand that their dog is perfect for them and is in fact their pick of the litter. Two of these owners had waited over a year for a "Taz" puppy. In raising this litter, we used a couple of techniques that any owner or breeder may want to learn or emulate.
In addition, we did other things that may have impacted their maturation or in the future make a difference in the quality of their lives.
Well so far so good but we now needed to continue socialization of the pups away from their home. At 9 and 12 weeks of age, they visited Pat's Junior High School class for the whole day and we also had outings to parks with the entire litter. Just picture all those pups enjoying a romp in the grass. While at the park these pups would play with a group of young adults on probation. Their supervisor told us that these kids always made sure their work detail was done and that their behavior was outstanding so they could have "lunch" with the pups. Our other therapy dogs are rotated into and out of this school while performing various duties and functions so it was no huge surprise to the children when the pups came to school. In those two days, they were exposed to and handled by about 300 or so different kids. We believed by 12 weeks that we had laid a solid foundation for future training and had socialized the pups as best we could. However, we still needed a test to validate that our program had worked and this is where (click here to read Tributes) Superstition Mental Health's Mountain Heights Academy came into the picture. Every year for the last 4 years we had taken our dogs - Taz and Sara to work in their summer program. So we approached Mr. Richard Arbogast, the Director, Children's Intensive Services at Superstition Mountain Mental Health Center and asked if he would consider using our puppies instead of our certified trained and experienced therapy dogs to work in the formal summer school program. He agreed to pilot the program with the pups and coordinated the development of the learning outcomes for the five-week program. From that we built a program of instruction and lesson plans to achieve the following: As a result of learning to train, socialize and work with a puppy, the students will:
After the first week, the students had to earn the privilege to participate in the program. It was amazing to observe the motivational value of this program in controlling behavior in children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and other emotional problems. In the 5 weeks that the program ran, we achieved 100 per cent appropriate behavior from the children. The program really fostered self-control in the children because they wanted to participate with the pups. During the first three weeks, we brought a different puppy to class each time. We did two half hour and a one hour session every Tuesday. We did this because of the attention span of the children and to ensure that the children and puppies were exposed to different personalities, sexes, learning abilities, teaching styles, etc. During the first week, we showed them a video on the Doberman, discussed dog and human anatomy and had them practice Ttouch on themselves and the pups. During week two, we introduced clicker training and showed them how to do operant conditioning. They practiced teaching sits and downs using clicker training. We never told the children that the dogs were pre-trained. It was amazing to see their enjoyment and sense of accomplishment when the pups responded positively to their training. In the third week, we worked on some more Ttouch and introduced "downs and stays". In week four, we did some skill polishing with the pups and children and introduced the "come" command. In the last week, we brought all the dogs to the three different sessions and let the children pick the dog they liked the best to start off with. We rotated the dogs. During each rotation, they did sits, downs, stays and Ttouch that calmed the children and pups. The most rewarding part of the class was graduation day. We took photos of each child with their favorite pup and then took them to one-hour photo so they could have them back the same day. For many of these children, you would have thought we had given them gold. Maybe those pictures represented something more precious to them - a sense of accomplishment, unconditional love from all of us or perhaps the thought that we all cared about them and wanted the best for them. When we left on the last day, we could honestly say it was a "win-win". We had raised exceptional pups, the pilot program had achieved its goals and exceeded expectations and more importantly the staff and children thought the world of the program and Dobermans. None of this could have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the following:
If you have any questions on this program, Delta Society or therapy dogs just email us at Tazman_Dobe@msn.com or call 928-525-9885. Service Animals for People with Invisible Disabilities Teaching students of junior high age with Emotionally Disabilities is often a task that gives little reward. Having taught for 18 years special needs students that show no physical signs of having problems; I am often looking for something to get them to connect with reality as others see it. I always want the kids to be greeted by someone who is happy that they are at school and there are some days I just can't do that. Having a Pet Partner who can welcome them every morning is what has fit this need. After having done this over the years, I realized that I needed something more -- something that could allow a student with an IQ well above the average person to get involved in. In addition to our selective breeding and training of our Doberman to have a temperament that would be useful, I still felt the need for the kids to have something more hands on. When asked to have such a program by the School Board President, the local animal care and control was asked to assist in developing a program that would help with this. A program called Teaching Love and Compassion was already in use in Los Angeles, which involved students going to that facility to help train the dogs as well as deal with their own emotions. People with "emotional disabilities" are not readily identified. Taking them to the shelter was not an alternative for my students, since they would be missing a great deal of class time. So we decided to revamp their program and actually have six dogs from the shelter brought to campus and fostered out into the community for four weeks. During that time, the dogs would be brought in to my classroom in the morning and students would then actually do obedience training for and hour and then process for the next hour. The dogs stayed on campus for the day and were picked up in the afternoon by their "foster" parents. Two students were assigned to train the dogs and we attempted to match hyper kids with mellow dogs and vice versa. TLC's impact could not be measured with grades or test scores. The tools typically used to gauge success in school do not apply to a program that is the first of its kinds in Maricopa County. That is why at the end of the four weeks looking for small things gave me the feedback I needed. There was Ryan, a 13 year old with an aversion to touch, who by the end of the program is massaging Bond. There was Tyler, 13, who had spoken of abusing animals and by the program's end had befriended the family dog that had once run from him. Jon, 13, missed the bus and actually walked to school. (We had sent security out to pick him up after his grandmother called and told us that he wouldn't stay home since he knew Ruby was counting on him to be there. I did not believe that four weeks of dog training could turn around these kids' lives. But I did believe we had a chance of giving them a feeling of accomplishment. I've been working with these kids for 18 years and I've never had a program that had such results. The kids understood they did something good. They so rarely have the chance to see the good result from something they did, and best of all we managed to get these older "unadoptable" dogs homes. |
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by Pat Policastro
In the Summer 1995 issue of the Doberman Quarterly, LeMil's Midnight Devil's introduction into the world of a Junior High School was chronicled. He was brought into the school as part of an educational program to reach respect and responsibility in my classroom for Emotionally Disabled students. His first year was an outstanding success and this year he continues to help students and staff. One other school will be having a dog on campus in the Fall thanks to Taz's success! Taz's second year at Taylor Junior High has continued to prove that he is a product of a stable and exceptional breeding. The included letter written by the student Council at Taylor is an excellent summary of what he has been doing for the students and staff at Taylor. Students in my classroom also wrote letters which have shown the success of having this boy in the classroom. Some of them made the following comments:
He started his show career by getting a reserve and has continued to show what an exceptional dog he is when at the last two Arizona shows he went from the conformation ring, winning the points, straight to the Obedience ring, getting his first two legs on his CD with my husband. This summer I'm not teaching summer school, but Taz has volunteered to work with the Superstition Mental Health Association's program. Four days a week he goes to their program with K-6 kids; it is not an academic program like Taylor, but one for recreation. He helps these students learn how to play appropriately with him and each other. In this program, I am not with him. He gets dropped off at 9 a.m. and we pick him up at 2 p.m. One of the third graders wrote a note to me thanking me for letting him come to the program, since it really makes her want to be there and participate. One mom has to bring her son 15 minutes early so he can play with Taz without sharing him with the other students. Later this summer he will begin the Delta Society's Pet Partners Animal Assisted Therapy Services Program, as well as continuing working towards his Obedience titles. Environment has definitely played a part in making Taz such a success story,
but without the careful attention to the genetic makeup of Taz
on both sides of his pedigree, I know that I would never have
achieved such success in our program. The students, staff and
parents of Taylor would like to thank Michelle Lewis for breeding
such a fine animal. I know our family of three other Dobermans
and five cats can't begin to thank her enough for allowing us
the opportunity to have this wonderful example of the Doberman
breed be a part of our family. |
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