**Come visit with Ms. Jacques and Getty at Bark in the Park!**
Future:
Moving forward, we plan to expand the role of the facility dog to reach as many students as possible in our school community. Staff at Burns have signed on to expand our animal-assisted interventions across the school day. Our new facility dog will assist during reading/math small group instruction (to assist with motivation and focus), during guidance lessons (to improve motivation, participation, confidence, and problem-solving skills) and within the community during a variety of events (open house, parent teacher conferences, school spirit weeks, etc.). The facility dog will continue to work with our special needs community doing the good work Rangley started for us.
CK Burns' Therapy and Facility Dog Program
Rangley’s School picture at C.K. Burns
History:
Rangley worked at C.K. Burns School for seven years as our school’s devoted therapy dog. He worked alongside our speech pathologist, Melissa Jacques, by providing animal-assisted intervention (AAI) to students with communication disorders. We found that Rangley’s presence assisted students with emotional regulation, reducing anxiety, improving social language skills, and speech production skills by motivating them to communicate with confidence! He inspired interest and connection through his calm and loving presence. Easing fears and worries was part of the job of a therapy dog and it proved to be a genuine gift for our students who have communication challenges.
A therapy dog’s purpose is to connect people through joy, comfort and affection. Rangley made us a more connected and compassionate community and we look forward to continuing this important work.
Animal Assisted Therapy in schools is becoming widely recognized. The team at ACTS is excited to be on the cutting edge of this trend. They have graduated over 15 Facility Teams with a strong emphasis on AAI.
Assistance Canine Training Services (ACTS) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. For more information, visit
https://www.assistancecanine.org/.
