Parsons USD 503 schools welcomed two new therapy dogs this year, Louie and Sophia.
They joined Jack, at Lincoln, Jaxx at Parsons High School and Callie at Parsons Middle School, who all devotedly serve the students and staff of the district, offering their unconditional love.
Sophia, is a golden doodle owned by Garfield second grade teacher Wendy Vaughn.
Throughout the years Vaughn has considered working towards her master’s in an area like school counseling, as she has a strong interest in that arena. Given all the social-emotional development instructors teach now at every grade level, and students in learning how to self-regulate, the thoughts had been forefront in her mind, along with the thought of getting a therapy dog.
It was during COVID in 2020 when Vaughn decided she wanted to get another puppy, and wanting it to be a therapy dog, disposition was key.
“We were home. When’s a better time to get a puppy?” Vaughn said, regarding the timing.
She bought Sophia had her for more than a year but had not yet moved forward with her training.
“The cost, it’s not cheap,” Vaughn said. “And it’s based on each individual dog,’ so some dogs can cost more to train than others. An owner doesn’t know until they are in it what cost they are looking at.
Sophia was an anxious pup, scared of boxes and other things, so Vaughn didn’t know when she would be ready for training. However, when an article came out in the Parsons Sun on Jan. 17 of this year talking about all the other therapy dogs in the district, and that Garfield was the only school without one, Vaughn decided it was time.
“Everybody knew that was my plan,” she said. It was that very month she signed up for the classes with Good Boy Professional Dog Training in Pittsburg, where all the therapy dogs in the district had gone.
“We are so very proud of the positive impact that all of the therapy dogs in the Parsons schools are making. We had the privilege to train and certify each of these dogs. We are so very proud of each and every one of these dogs and their handlers. They all put in so much hard work to be able to become certified therapy dog teams,” Amelia Wheeler, with Good Boy Training said. “Jack (owned by Bruce and Jo Dee Rea) was the very first dog that we trained to work in the (Parsons) schools. He did such an amazing job and showed how much of a positive impact therapy dogs can have in the school environment. After Jack was working it was much easier for the schools to see the need for more therapy dogs.”
Sophia is the only therapy dog at the elementary level based in one classroom. The first two weeks of training and first two weeks of the school year, there is no touch, no talk, no contact between the children and the therapy dogs.
“They have to act like she isn’t there. Students have to learn to ask to touch her,” Vaughn said.
They have, and Sophia has been hard at work, helping children since then. “Every day, students come to school anxious and emotional, unregulated, with so much noise from outside with family and dysfunction. They come in and they are just struggling,” Vaughn said.
Sophia is there to help bring calm, reduce stress and anxiety and help the students move through the day.
“She’s got those eyes and she just looks at you like a human,” Vaughn said “She wants to come to school really badly and she gets really mad at me if she has to stay home. …They told me I need to keep a log of the little ways she impacts the staff and students.” People wouldn’t recognize Sophia at home. At school, when she has her vest on, she knows she is working. She is very chill, laying on her pillow by Vaughn’s desk most of the time, waiting for the children granted permission to pet her.
One thing for sure, Sophia has already become a part of the Garfield family. Her picture will be alongside everyone else’s in this year’s yearbook.
LOUIE
Louie, a one-and-a-half-year-old corgi, is owned by Robyn Thomas, a mental health liaison for the district. He is still in training.
Thomas adopted Louie through Misfits Mutts in Carl Junction.
“They take dogs that are purebreds, but they are misfits that the breeders can’t sell,” Thomas said of the name.
Thomas saw Louie online and thought about adopting him as a pet, but was a little hesitant. Her mom and son, encouraged her.
After adopting Louie, though she felt bad because she works second job after school. She would take him with her occasionally, but felt bad because most days she was gone from home for long periods.
“He just loves people, so we decided we would get him in training so he can come to school and share some love,” Thomas said.
Like other therapy dogs before him in the district, Louie is going through Good Boy Training to earn his certificate. He started in May and did his six weeks of group classes in the summer. He will likely do his practice test in November and it will probably be in January when he will do his final test to become a certified therapy dog.
“He’s doing very good with his training,” Thomas said. “When she (the trainer) comes here he’s been able to do what he is supposed to do, so hopefully he will be able to test and be approved.”
Presently, Thomas takes Louie into classrooms at Lincoln, the recovery room, certain after school programs to be with certain students, and sometimes brings students into her office to spend time Louie there. Sometimes spending time with Louie is used as a reinforcer for good behavior with some students.
“They love him. He’s so cute,” Thomas said. Time and again she said she has seen students who are having a really bad day, and within seconds of petting Louie their mood will turn around. He also has a positive impact on the teachers as well, who can use a little Louie therapy.
When she is in her office working, Louie can often be seen sitting at the doggie gate in the doorway, his nose stuck out between the bars, just waiting for someone to pass by who can’t resist stopping to pet him. “We are teaching the kids how to approach him and how to ask to pet him, because sometimes they want to be all over him, and I can tell when it’s too much,” Thomas said, “But he tolerates the kids really well. He likes to be with them and wants to be with them. Hopefully this spring he will get to go out to recess and be with them because he loves to go get the ball and play catch.”