The Calais School’s one-of-a-kind Animal Assisted Interventions Program is excited to welcome the newest and tiniest member of our team: Bindi, a seven-pound Papillon-mix.

Bindi is currently getting acclimated to her position on the Calais AAI Team. Once she is ready, she will begin providing behavioral and therapeutic interventions to students in various related services including occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, reading remediation, counseling, and social skills building.

When asked to describe Bindi, Calais AAI handler Susan Greenbaum described the petite pup as “mischievous” and said, “Bindi is the quintessential ‘little sister’ (even though she is the oldest of the dogs). She tags along after the others and bothers them-especially when they are sleeping. She spins when she is extremely excited and thinks everyone she meets is a new friend.”

So far students have responded well to Bindi as she walks down the school hallways and even occasionally rolls down the hall in her specially outfitted “Bindi mobile”.

Bindi has her National Therapy Dog Certification with Bright & Beautiful Therapy Dogs, her American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen Certification and her American Kennel Club Urban Canine Good Citizen. Before joining the Calais team, Bindi worked at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital under the supervision of the Child Life Department.

The Calais Animal Assisted Interventions Program helps students reach behavioral and therapeutic goals by delivering highly effective intervention techniques in group and individual settings. Our dogs and handlers assist students by participating in clinical school behavior plans and therapeutic settings.

Our program has received rave reviews from our Calais families.

Parent Jennifer C. said the Animal Assisted Interventions Program has motivated her son Owen to work harder and overcome challenges. “My son Owen has gotten so much out of the AAI Program,” she said. “He reads to the dogs, gets very close to them and talks about them all the time.”

Owen has pictures of the dogs, which he enjoys looking at. He also likes to spend time with the dogs, which makes hard work seem like fun to him. “The dogs make him want to do things that he has struggled with in the past. He used to struggle with reading, but he has fun when he does it and we can tie the direct success (of his reading) with working with dogs. It feels exciting and fun for him. Being with the dogs makes him want to read.”

The Calais Animal Assisted Interventions Program made such a difference in the life of Angela E.’s son Ray that the family decided to adopt a rescue puppy, so they would have a dog at home to help Ray there too.

When Mrs. E. saw her son interacting with the dogs, he would get excited and look up. She said the AAI dogs gave him a new perspective and helped him focus on school. He would focus for a whole session of speech or an activity. “The AAI Program is a great program which I hope continues and expands,” she said. “When the pet therapy dogs started coming to his classes, he absolutely loved working with them and when they do virtual learning, he gets such a kick out of it with the dogs saying yes or no (using cards).”

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