A Therapy Dog
An Aroostook County courthouse is poised to be the first in Maine to have a dedicated therapy dog to provide emotional support for people dealing with traumatic experiences.
A yellow Labrador puppy named Holiday has begun up to two years of training with a goal of becoming a calming presence in a stressful environment.
Aroostook County District Attorney Todd Collins told the Banglor News that courthouse dogs can help traumatized children and victims of crime.
They can also provide emotional support for law enforcement officers, first responders and others, too.The Houlton courthouse already has an unofficial therapy dog — an English Mastiff named Nephi — who can sometimes be found in the office of his owner, Valerie Eldredge, the victim/witness advocate in Houlton.
Holiday will have a much more focused job once she completes her training, said Tyler Jones, owner of Purpose Pups in Houlton who is training Holiday to become an officially licensed courthouse dog.
Indy likes to play video games and hang out with friends. Indy likes to sleep. Indy is nice and she is very thoughtful. Indy likes to go out of her way...
Sean Niedermoser • Mar 14, 2022 at 2:18 pm
I think this is really cool. Therapy dogs could help so many people.
Layla Barnes • Mar 7, 2022 at 2:34 pm
I think that service dogs are a good idea because they tend to make people feel more comfortable in general. On top of that, they are great at helping police get the information that they need because they relieve stress.
Shelby Kennedy • Mar 7, 2022 at 2:34 pm
It is so cool on how animals can be trained to assist people in their life.
Tamya Shephard • Mar 7, 2022 at 2:33 pm
I think that it is cool that they added a therapy dog to help people with more difficult and stressful jobs and to help people dealing with trauma, and I think that Holiday will help a lot of people in the future.
Maia Stamp • Mar 7, 2022 at 2:22 pm
I love this because people interact differently with animals and I feel like they are better
Ava Simpson • Mar 7, 2022 at 2:19 pm
I love the Idea of a therapy dog. I think that it definitely makes kids and even older people more comfortable talking about trauma in a courtroom.
Graham Edwards • Mar 7, 2022 at 2:18 pm
therapy dogs could be the new bitcoin many people adopt dogs and say it makes them feel so much better, therapy dogs might have the same effect.