Skye is the seventeenth therapy dog to be placed in West Virginia’s public schools through Friends with Paws. The program began in April 2022 with the first placement at Welch Elementary.
A school in the Eastern Panhandle is the latest recipient of a therapy dog through the Communities In Schools: Friends With Paws program.
Berkeley Springs High School in Morgan County received its very own therapy dog this week named Skye. First Lady Cathy Justice made the announcement in a press release Wednesday.
“I am very happy that we were able to place Skye in beautiful Berkeley Springs,” she said in the release. “I think this will be a great home for her, and I can’t wait to hear about all the ways that Skye’s presence will make a positive impact on students’ lives. This is a day of celebration!”
Skye is the seventeenth therapy dog to be placed in West Virginia’s public schools through Friends With Paws. The program began in April 2022 with the first placement at Welch Elementary.
The therapy dog program, according to the governor’s office, was launched as a way to alleviate some of the social-emotional effects of poverty, addiction and other at-risk situations in the state’s Communities In Schools (CIS) counties.
Gov. Jim Justice also noted at the time of launch that the program would help to combat the emotional effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) last year produced a documentary on the Friends With Paws therapy dog project under the same name. It can be viewed for free on WVPB’s YouTube channel or through PBS Passport.
“Berkeley Springs High School is very thankful for this opportunity through the Friends With Paws program. We are extremely excited to have Skye with us to support and comfort our students,” Principal Mitch Nida said.
Friends With Paws is a partnership between the governor’s office, West Virginia Communities In Schools, and the West Virginia Department of Education.
WVPB Television proudly announces the premiere of Communities In Schools: Friends with Paws. The half-hour television program will appear Monday, Oct. 17 at 9 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s TV channel and on YouTube
CHARLESTON, WV — WVPB Television proudly announces the premiere of Communities In Schools: Friends with Paws. The half-hour television program will appear Monday, Oct. 17 at 9 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s TV channel and on YouTube.
“Communities in Schools (CIS) is a tremendous program designed to help our students succeed, stay in school and prepare for life,” said Butch Antolini, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director for West Virginia Public Broadcasting. “We are honored to have the opportunity to be involved with the CIS effort in West Virginia and the incredible growth it has experienced since First Lady Cathy Justice and the Governor got involved in 2017. It is exciting to bring this television documentary, focusing on the next step in this program, to the airwaves.”
This broadcast features the Friends with Paws pilot project introducing therapy dogs in 10 West Virginia public schools to aid in the counseling and comforting of students. The Friends with Paws project is championed by West Virginia’s First Lady Cathy Justice and is part of the expanding CIS program. Featured in the television program are therapy dog deliveries to Welch Elementary and Lewis County High School.
“I am thrilled with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s interest in our Friends with Paws initiative, and the tremendous effort by their incredibly talented team,” stated First Lady Cathy Justice. “The documentary is full of touching stories they saw firsthand from traveling along with us as we placed therapy dogs in CIS sites this past Spring. I encourage everyone to watch on their local WVPB station and learn how this initiative is touching the lives of students in schools across the Mountain State. I know that as more people see this initiative in action, they too will understand the power of the unconditional love shown by these dogs.”
Communities In Schools: Friends With Paws
By December 2022, therapy dogs are scheduled to be delivered to: Lewis County High School, Welch Elementary, McDowell County, Buckhannon Academy, Upshur County; Pineville Elementary, Wyoming County, Moorefield Elementary, Hardy County, Spring Mills High School, Berkeley County, Wayne Elementary, Wayne County, Lenore PK-8th Grade, Mingo County, Green Bank Elementary-Middle School, Pocahontas County, and Greenbrier East High, Greenbrier County.
The Friends with Paws program was first introduced by Gov. Jim Justice and First Lady Cathy Justice in March 2022 with the goal to place certified therapy dogs in schools across the state, providing companionship and comfort for students in need of a boost. The program is a partnership between the Governor’s Office, West Virginia Communities In Schools (CIS), and the West Virginia Department of Education.
Communities In Schools: Friends with Paws is Part 2 of a production effort by WVPB to focus on the Communities in Schools program in West Virginia. Part 1, Communities In Schools: Extending a Helping Hand, premiered in November 2021. You can view Communities in Schools: Extending a Helping Hand online at https://video.wvpublic.org/show/community-schools-extending-helping-hand/.
West Virginia’s Communities in Schools is currently active in 36 West Virginia counties. The non-profit is part of a national youth‐serving and dropout prevention organization. The mission of the state and national organization is to link community resources with public schools, to provide direct services to help young people succeed, stay in school, and prepare for life.
Additional airdates for Communities in Schools: Friends with Paws include:
The program is organized through Gov. Jim Justice’s office, the West Virginia Department of Education and the nonprofit Communities in Schools. Therapy dogs provide comfort to those affected by certain psychological conditions like depression and anxiety.
Therapy dogs are coming to seven more West Virginia schools as part of the state’s “Friends With Paws” program.
Schools included are:
Pineville Elementary School in Wyoming County
Moorefield Elementary School in Hardy County
Spring Mills High School in Berkeley County
Wayne Elementary School in Wayne County
Lenore Elementary School in Mingo County
Greenbrier East High School in Greenbrier County
Green Bank Elementary-Middle School in Pocahontas County
The program is organized through Gov. Jim Justice’s office, the West Virginia Department of Education and the nonprofit Communities in Schools. Therapy dogs provide comfort to those affected by certain psychological conditions like depression and anxiety. First Lady Cathy Justice champions the program. “I think it will be so beneficial to the kids and just make them just want to come to school every day,” she said Thursday during a briefing. “And that’s what we want to do: make them feel good about themselves, come to school every day and just know that they’ll be such a big part in their life.”
The program began last March as a way to provide comfort to at-risk students, with the original goal to have 10 therapy dog placements by the end of the year. Of that number, three dogs were placed earlier this year at Welch Elementary School, Lewis County High School and Buckhannon Academy Elementary School.
“Friends With Paws” also plans to place ten more dogs in schools next year.
Therapy dogs are coming to more West Virginia schools. The initiative is an expansion of the West Virginia Communities in Schools program. Gov. Jim Justice and First Lady Cathy Justice announced “Friends with Paws” on Friday.
Gov. Jim Justice and First Lady Cathy Justice announced “Friends with Paws” on Friday.
At least ten therapy dogs will be placed in schools by the end of the year, according to the governor’s office. The press conference originally reported five dogs by the end of the year.
Gov. Justice said the dogs will help children who have been dealing with the emotional challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s been two years of this pandemic,” he said. “It has been really, really tough. It’s taken a mental toll on our kids.”
First Lady Justice said she has been developing the new project for more than a year. She said the dogs come from trainers with almost 30 years of experience and will know how to respond to a child who may be grieving or need an emotional boost.
“Dogs never say anything bad about you,” she said. “They always wag their tail, pant and bark, and they’re so happy to see you. They never give a negative vibe to a child.”
WV Governor's Office
The first four schools to get their therapy dogs over the next few months will be Welch Elementary School in McDowell County, Buckhannon Academy in Upshur County, Lewis County High School in Lewis County and Greenbank Elementary Middle School in Pocahontas County.
The first four dogs are named Coal, Foster, Jet and Jasper. Three are Labrador Retrievers and one is a Labradoodle.
Some schools in West Virginia already have therapy dogs, such as Mary C. Snow Elementary in Charleston. “Friends with Paws” is expected to get more of these dogs in more schools.
Communities in Schools is a statewide program serving 171 schools in 31 counties. West Virginia Public Broadcasting produced a short documentary on the program in fall 2021.
***Editor’s Note: The original version of this story said the name of the new program is “Friends for Paws.” This was incorrect. The correct name for the program is “Friends with Paws.”
Can service dogs help veterans living with post-traumatic stress disorder function in a civilian work environment? Researchers at West Virginia University are trying to find out.
Sometimes it’s hard to get interviewees to open up when you first meet them.
“Bella, speak. Oh, inside voices. That’s very good.”
Meet Bella, a 2-year-old yellow Labrador retriever, and her trainer, Morgan Syring.
I caught up with them last week while Bella was showing off her skills to a group of kindergarten students touring the WVU service dog training center at the university’s research farm.
WVU Service Dog Program
The service dog program began 10 years ago as a class to give pre-veterinary students the chance to learn about animal behavior. But it now trains dogs for veterans who have both PTSD and mobility issues.
Credit Jesse Wright / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Bella retrieves a bottle of water for Morgan Syring at WVU’s dog training center at the WVU Research Farm.
The training center has all the things you would find in a typical house, from a living room and a set of stairs to a row of fridges that the dogs can practice opening.
Bella trots over to fridge, pulls open the door and grabs a bottle. She hands it to Syring and closes the door.
Customized Skills
Syring says Bella has also been trained to provide a buffer for her person when he’s out in public.
“Her person also likes a lot of space, so she’ll walk around her person to keep like an imaginary bubble around them. So she’ll just circle around her person if he gets uncomfortable,” Syring said.
Bella is nearing the end of her training. Dr. Jean Meade runs the service dog training program. She says Bella’s skills will be customized to fit her person’s particular needs.
“When he gets stressed, he strokes his beard,” Meade said. “So he wanted us to teach the dog [that] when he started to stroke his beard, to come and put her head in his lap as a calming thing.”
Meade said having a service dog can be a transformative experience for a veteran with PTSD.
“We have another veteran that could no longer stay in the same bedroom with his wife at night because he would have severe night terrors.”
So the veteran wears a heart rate monitor, Meade said.
“So that at night when he’s sleeping and his heart rate starts to accelerate, the dog awakens him before he goes into a nightmare, which has really changed his life.”
Credit Jesse Wright / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
The service dog training center at WVU’s research farm off Stewartstown Road in Morgantown.
Empirical Evidence
Many veterans say that a therapy dog can help alleviate the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. Now researchers at WVU are studying whether service dogs might help control the symptoms of PTSD in the workplace.
Dr. Meade says, “There’s a tremendous amount of anecdotal evidence that service dogs are really helping these folks, but there’s not a lot empirical evidence to support it. And so the VA is waiting for that empirical evidence to make their decision of whether they will fund benefits for psychological service dogs.”
“We’re trying to generate that empirical evidence as to whether or not service dogs could help veterans get back into employment and society,” professor Matt Wilson said.
Working with psychology specialists at WVU, Wilson designed a scientific study to examine how dogs in the workplace affect veterans with PTSD.
So would a therapy dog in a workplace provide stress release to someone that wasn't their dog … or do you really have to have that bond with the dog to get that kind of a response and benefit.
How the Study Works
During the study, veterans will be monitored in a simulated work environment while they perform mildly stressful tasks. Dr. Meade is also involved in the study.
“We have a computer-simulated task that is intended to induce stress. The veterans are hooked up to heart-rate monitors and eye-blink monitors and are asked to do this demanding task and then these physiological parameters are measured,” she said.
Two types of tasks will be used. One task is much like a hearing test, where participants are asked to respond to flashing lights on a screen. The other involves completing math problems.
Because it can cost up to $25,000 to train a service dog, Meade says one of the study’s goals is to find out whether a therapy dog can provide that same benefit. She explained that a therapy dog doesn’t require the same intensive training that a service dog needs.
“So would a therapy dog in a workplace provide stress release to someone that wasn’t their dog, it’s just wandering around through the office setting, or do you really have to have that bond with the dog to get that kind of a response and benefit,” Meade said.
Project ROVER
The research is part of a WVU project called “ROVER.” ROVER stands for Returning Our Veterans to Employment and Reintegration.
Wilson said he is recruiting veterans with and without service dogs for the ROVER study. Wilson also encourages veterans across the nation to complete a survey on the Project ROVER website. Among other things, information gathered through the survey will aid in the design of more studies that focus on the barriers veterans with PTSD face in reintegrating back into civilian life.
