The Calais School’s Animal Assisted Interventions Program is excited to welcome two new members to its team: new animal handler Lori Kertesz and her dog Star.

Mrs. Kertesz is both a registered nurse and a physical therapist and has many years of experience working in a hospital setting. “I am looking forward to working with Star as part of the Animal Assisted Interventions team at Calais,” she said.

In addition, Mrs. Kertesz and her family volunteer to raise puppies for The Seeing Eye and raised Star from seven weeks old until she returned to live with them years later. The family also has a retired champion West Highland White Terrier and a sable German Shepard Seeing Eye puppy at home. Prior to the pandemic, Star and Mrs. Kertesz visited residents at a nursing home.

Mrs. Kertesz also completed a 12-week internship at The Calais School before becoming a new animal handler at the school.

The students at Calais are thrilled to welcome new AAI dog Star, a small black Labrador Retriever. Star is registered with Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs and has her American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen certificate and the Canine Good Citizen Excellence certificate.

Star was born at the Seeing Eye Breeding Station and was raised by Mrs. Kertesz and her family from 7 weeks through 15 months and attended weekly puppy classes. She traveled and visited many places many puppies never get to go. When she returned to the Seeing Eye, she started her formal guide dog training and was chosen to become a breeder. She had 31 puppies and many of them went to become guide dogs. Mrs. Kertesz said she and her family felt like they had won the lottery when they were able to adopt Star back into their family after three years. “Star settled back in our home just like she never left,” Mrs. Kertesz said. “Star loves to go to the Calais School and is looking forward to getting to know the staff and students.”

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).”

This post was first published on the Calais Foundation website.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________