Shiloh and McDuff, two of the ambassador dogs from the Buckeye Paws program came to visit the A. Sophie Rogers School for Early Learning earlier this month. Shiloh and McDuff are trained therapy dogs in the Wexner Medical Center’s Stress, Trauma and Resilience Program. Buckeye Paws brought the dogs to visit our teachers and children who have been attending school in a pandemic setting since June.
Before Shiloh and McDuff came, the children prepared for their visit by learning more about therapy dogs and other dogs who provide services. When the much-anticipated day arrived, the children were ready and excited. Preschool team lead teacher Meredith Schilling said,
When Shiloh and McDuff visited our classroom, the children were overjoyed and we, as teachers, were excited to hear the children’s questions and comments, as they were curious about each dog, and eager to share their experiences with the dogs. Many of the children were surprised to learn that the dogs were the same age as them!
As a teacher, I am grateful for the positivity the therapy dogs’ visit brought to our school community, and I enjoyed the stress relief that the dogs provided. The visit from Buckeye Paws really was wonderful for all of us, and we talk about it frequently.
You can watch a glimpse of the fun the children had with Shiloh and McDuff in this video. A very special thank you to the Buckeye Paws program for providing the photographs.
The children also shared their thoughts about the visit, saying:
I liked to pet the dog.
I feels happy (about the dog visit).
The dog made me happy. I gave it a hug.
“I thought the dogs coming, was like, great! We could pet him. We could, like, hug him. One thing I loved was (seeing) the pictures; I liked seeing them (dogs and other children) in the pictures.”
*For context, during these pandemic times, classrooms do not co-mingle as we used to, and when the children saw all the pictures of the visit, they were excited to see other children in their own classrooms having similar experiences to the one we had in our classroom. This was an unexpected benefit of the visit.
After Buckeye Paws visited our school, the children had an opportunity to journal about what the visit meant to them. Here are some samples of their reflections:
Michele Quinn, lead preschool teacher, shared that,
The kids also made ‘bracelets’ (I like to call them ‘tail bling’) for the dogs, as well. The children are – without a doubt – in LOVE with McDuff and Shiloh.
At the end of the visit, the Buckeye Paws program offered to schedule another visit to the A. Sophie Rogers School. It’s a bit of an understatement to say that the kids, and teachers, are already talking about (and very much looking forward to) Buckeye Paws’ next visit!
