Clawson to get therapy dogs at start of new school year

CLAWSON — Next year, Clawson Public Schools will be welcoming four new furry friends to the district.

The district will be home to four therapy dogs, two bernedoodles and two Australian labradoodles — one for each of the school buildings in Clawson.

Therapy dogs have been something that Superintendent Billy Shellenbarger has wanted to add to the district since he was hired last year. The dogs were brought in from Mindfulness Therapy Dogs and were picked during Clawson’s spring break a couple of months ago.

Shellenbarger said the dogs will be used to help students in crisis, whether major or minor, such as kids going through friendship or relationship problems or going through a death in the family or suffering from anxiety.

“They’re just very simply there and available for any of those crises,” he said. “We’ll also be proactive with the dogs and have them on a little bit of a schedule to go see classrooms and things of that nature, but they’ll always be there to address and be a resource for students who are in that space of need, of crisis, whether minor or major, related to their mental health and wellness.”

Shellenbarger stated that something like this is a big culture builder in the district.

“Now students who maybe don’t have a lot of positivity in their day or bright light in their day all of a sudden may have that to look forward to, when maybe they don’t have too many things to look forward to,” he said. We’re hoping to be the ones that can provide that for our kids when their days are not their best, and we can help change that for them.”

The dogs were secured through an Oakland County mental health grant. After finishing training, the dogs will arrive in September. The district has picked out the host families for the dogs and now is working with local businesses to get suggestions for names.

Clawson Athletic Director and high school Assistant Principal Kelly Horne will be taking in one of the dogs. Horne said the families will undergo training for a day in September to prepare them to care for the dogs.

“Obviously a therapy dog is a working dog. And so there’s work time and then there’s playtime,” she said. “So when the therapy dog comes with me to work, you know, she’s going to be working, but then we can bring her home and she can have playtime too. So there is a difference between just a family dog and a working therapy dog.”

Both Shellenbarger and Horne saw firsthand how helpful therapy dogs can be after the death of high school graduate and Michigan State student Alexandria Verner in February. Therapy dogs were brought in from neighboring districts to help students with their grief.

Horne, Verner’s basketball coach, said seeing how the dogs helped people hit home hard for her.

“That’s probably the main reason that I want to be one of those therapy dog hosts — because I saw the effect it had on the kids after a tragedy that we went through,” she said.

Shellenbarger said the impact the dogs had on everyone during that time was on a level that he’d never seen before.

“It was just so impactful that that really drilled home (that we) need to have these dogs in our district,” he said. “We could not be happier about where we’re heading with this program for our district. It is truly a game-changer.”