Generally speaking, animal assisted therapy is a therapeutic intervention that incorporates the use of highly trained animals to enhance and compliment a therapeutic treatment plan. Animal assisted therapy can help people develop a better sense of self esteem and trust, stabilize their emotions, and improve their communication, motivation, self-regulation and socialization skills.

Calais’s Animal Assisted Therapy Program actually evolved from an occasional fun visit by an outside provider to an integral part of our in-house Counseling team and associated services. Having our very own Animal Assisted Therapy Program means we can safely cater to the needs of our students and provide tailored behavioral and therapeutic interventions with regular consistency and follow-up.

Our trained handlers facilitate the students’ interactions with the dogs and work with our counseling and related services team to ensure that each student gets the individualized interaction with the dogs that will benefit them.

An incredible amount of training goes into completing the qualifications required for each facility dog and handler. On top of being certified teachers, our animal handlers are certified in Natural Canine Behavior Rehabilitation™ through United K9 Professionals. The Calais facility dogs are hard-working, full-time faculty members and they are trained to adapt to the needs of each and every one of our students.  The students and staff at Calais are all well versed on the appropriate ways to interact with the dogs when they are called in for interventions