Southwestern Central School district is introducing a new furry friend as the newest employee.

The addition of a therapy dog to the district will hopefully offer a range of benefits to students in the elementary school.

Oakley is an 18 month old labrador retriever who has been brought on as the first therapy dog in the district. Oakley officially started with the district on Nov. 24.

The dog belongs to Southwestern Elementary and Middle School Occupational Therapist Pete Conley, who was the mastermind behind the idea. Conley initially brought the idea of a therapy dog to the administrative team after his family dog had been certified as a therapy dog. District Superintendent Molly Moore that Conley referenced other districts that had incorporated therapy dogs, and hoped to bring those same benefits to SWCS.

“I have seen a lot of changes throughout the years with kids’ behaviors, their sensory regulation, their performance in school,” said Conley. “I felt that she would be a great asset to our special education team to help kids, to give them a sense of emotional support.”

Moore stated that therapy dogs are perfect for bringing comfort, support, sensory experiences, and motivation to students. Since this is Oakley’s first job as a therapy dog, the hours are luckily not too demanding. Oakley will start by coming in for two days each week, for only a couple a couple hours each day. As Oakley becomes accustomed to this new schedule, the time at the school may increase so that Oakley can provide services to more students. Conley plans to begin to use Oakley in the elementary school to work with students with disabilities that he has been seeing for OT services. As Oakley gets more familiar and comfortable with the school over time, Moore stated that they hope to expand the program to other children.

“We have a service dog in our school and the kids just want to pet that service dog, they want to talk to that service dog. They want to interact with it, but they can’t,” said Conley. “So my goal is to be able to eventually push into the general education classes with her. Allow the kids to interact with her, and brush her, and learn about how to care for a dog and how to care for an animal.”