On Friday, November 14, Therapy Dogs visited WMC for the second time this year. They were in the Zen room during the 7th period. They visited WMC to bring the students joy and happiness. Multiple classes came by to let their students visit, learn about, and enjoy the amazing dogs. Therapy Dogs brought three of their furry representatives. Their names are Bernie, Vista, and Ziti.
Therapy dogs serve many different purposes. One of the most common uses is for people’s mental health. But in some cases there are different kinds of dogs. Dogs from the Seeing Eye Dogs program are used for people who are blind. These dogs, as a part of this program, are bred by using a breeding station. If they have any medical issues like sight loss they won’t be chosen for the program.
WMC freshman Juliana Byank enjoys raising Seeing Eye dogs with her family. Her favorite part is how different every dog is and how they can be fun to play with. She also believes that raising these dogs can help with her stress and even make her mental health better. Though she enjoys this, there are still some hard parts to raising them. “One of the hardest struggles is having people resist petting them when they’re not working, or when they’re doing something else at work,” Byank said. “For seeing eye dogs, they’re not supposed to be petted at all when they’re working with their blind person, but for therapy dogs, they’re allowed to be pet at work. So you really just have to choose and see which one you’re doing.”
Naomi Byank, a seeing eye dog volunteer that raises these dogs in her home. She believes Seeing Eye Dogs and Therapy Dogs actually do help people and are successful with their job. “So even each and every time we raise the puppies, we wonder, how are they gonna do, and are they gonna be able to do the job? And somehow, when they get into harness, they learn the job” Byank said. “ Some of those dogs just absolutely love it. As you watch, and you hear from the graduates, they’ll come back and talk to us about how many times the dog has saved their life.”
Certainly, these dogs will visit WMC again soon.
