Yesterday mom and her friend, Miss Krista were chatting. Boy, can they talk! I usually pick a cool spot and practice a “Down” (lying on the floor) and use my sweet puppy eyes to beg for treats. LOL! They were talking about two of my favorite topics: kids and school. We are working with a newly formed team with young teachers and sixth graders. We are also adding language arts to our curriculum and we have our own classroom!

That means we will be introducing me to students again. We have to educate students about three things: basic dog safety, the use of a therapy dog in a classroom, and service dog ettiquette. When we do this, we consider our audience, their love of dogs or their fear of dogs, their past experience or lack thereof, and their culture and religion. (Mom and Krista take care of health concerns in advance). They explain my dual roles as a service dog and as a therapy dog.

I am a Certified Public Service Dog and a Certified and Insured Therapy Dog through Pawsibilities Unleashed LLC. As a service dog, I go everywhere with my mom. Everywhere means we are together 24/7. I go to stores, restaurants, hospitals, movies and even the hospital. I have full public access. As a therapy dog, I go places to volunteer like schools, nursing homes, parades, special events and see private clients. I do not go to movies, into restaurants, hospitals unless invited by the hospital, or into stores like the mall. I love to be patted. Most therapy dogs do! By now you know the rule that to ask the owner before just patting a dog. Therapy dogs are there for petting and for doing trained tasks with children to facilitate a goal.

When I am at school but not in the classroom, I am working for my mom full time as her service dog! That means I am completely focused on the tasks that I am trained to do for her. Because I am working, it is not a good time to pat me. In school, it is understandable that kids have trouble grasping that have two jobs and when I am doing which job. I remind them classroom and teaching=patting. Hallway and other areas = no patting.

We spent lots of time trying to explain that I was a medical assistance dog and many people just patted me anyway. Most of them were adults- LOL! Finally one day, mom said, “Would you pet a wheelchair?” The person stopped. “Wheelchair?”. “Bella, is just like my wheelchair. She takes care of my medical needs instead of a medical device. Would you pat a wheelchair or my glasses?”. The person stopped and thought, “No”. “Then please don’t pat Bella when she is working”. I wagged my tail. I am way better than a wheelchair but this explanation works!

This poster really says it well:

Woofs and wags,

Bella