PEA RIDGE — “It’s his job to make you smile,” Sue Stacey told the student when he asked what the golden retriever by her side does at school.
“It must be working. Look at my smile,” the child said.
Mrs. Stacey smiled, too, as she looked at the child. Stacey and Wrigley have been trying to help children for many years. And, before Wrigley, Mrs. Stacey’s sidekick was Kinsey, also a golden retriever.
Combing her two loves - teaching and dogs - Stacey ministers to the children of Pea Ridge schools.
“I always knew I wanted to be a teacher,” Stacey said, adding that she had a colleague years ago in Kansas who had a service dog. “I’ve always loved dogs.”
Stacey is the special education director at Pea Ridge schools.
Over the four campuses, there are nine teachers, aides and clinicians.
Ten years ago, Stacey was given permission to use a service dog in her classroom.
“There’s a lot of different uses for service dogs,” Stacey said, explaining that dogs can be used to aid sight-impaired and hearing-impaired persons and for many other purposes. She said there are dogs as small as a Papillon used in nursing homes and dogs as large as a Bull Mastiff that was used in a home for special needs adults whose manager needed a service dogthat couldn’t be thrown by the residents.
“Dogs can add pleasure topeople’s lives. They can be very calming. They’ve very affective for students with autism.
When the child doesn’t want to be involved with people, they’ll connect with the dog,” she said, recalling a time when a student who wouldn’t stand up to give a speech to her classmates, she presented the speech to Wrigley.
Time with Wrigley is used as an incentive. Students work to earn time with Wrigley, Stacey said.
The puppies selected for service dogs are each put in a foster home for the first year of their lives to bond with people and learn basic obedience. Then, they are returned to the training program for six weeks of specialized training.
“We’ve been our own puppy raiser both times,” Stacey said.
The dogs are micro-chipped and each costs about $2,500 to families once they’re trained.
“I’m just glad they didn’t mind her coming in,” Stacey said of Wrigley coming into the Pea Ridge schools when she came on board this year.
Wrigley can go anywhere a service dog is allowed, Stacey said.
Now, she walks the halls of Pea Ridge schools wagging her tail and responding to each child’s calls for attention or lies quietly at Stacey’s feet.
Wrigley was trained through Canine Assistance Rehability Education and Services in Concordia, Kan., where each dog is selected for their task based on a temperament test.
News, Pages 1 on 10/24/2012