Therapeutic Service Dog Facts

Bringing a therapeutic service dog into our school community will provide a PRO-ACTIVE approach to addressing many academic challenges, as well as social/emotional concerns. A therapeutic service dog is a creative and "out of the box" way to foster and maintain a positive school culture, engage and challenge students as they learn, and foster self-esteem in order for students to succeed as they continue to develop into life long learners.

Therapeutic service dog at Cove School will also:

• foster and encourage empathy, respect & responsibility towards self, and others in ALL students
• encourage students to arrive to school on time
• support students who struggle with a variety of academic and/or social & emotional challenges
• decrease anxiety in those who struggle with academic and social situations
•  be utilized as a motivator/reward for positive behavior for individual students and classrooms in a number of ways (earning read aloud time with the dog, taking the dog for a walk, throwing ball outside with the dog, being a greeter with dog, etc...)

We are looking forward to the 2013-2014 school year and will see you next week!!