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Healing Through Therapy Dogs

From the Seattle Kennel Club:

When it comes to healing, Newtown’s therapy dogs have no age limits for coaxing a smile and easing pain

By Ranny Green

“I looked into their eyes and they recognized my pain,” said a teary-eyed Reed Intermediate School sixth-grader describing the grief-counseling role played by therapy dogs after the Dec. 14 shooting massacre that took 26 lives at nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School in idyllic Newtown, Conn.

The dogs served multiple roles and opened the eyes of many professionals with their healing capabilities at Reed, where a community crisis center was established the following day and remained operative for six months. They also assisted in other Newtown schools for varying lengths of time, including Sandy Hook Elementary, which moved to a vacant middle school in nearby Monroe Jan. 3.

“There were many days I didn’t feel like talking to anyone,” confessed another Reed sixth-grade student on the final day of the school year in late June, “I just needed something to hug. The dogs gave me that.”

Link to the rest at Seattle Kennel Club.