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Students meet service dogs at AHS

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Roni Pillsbury with her service dog, Jackson, speaks with students in Melissa Speich’s class.

WILTON – The students in Melissa Speich’s classroom at Academy Hill School had some special, four-footed guests Thursday, as part of their canine-themed Kindness Project.

Roni Pillsbury, accompanied by her service dog, Jackson, spoke to the class about her experience with the black Standard Poodle. She described him as “very, very smart, but also stubborn.”

“So cute!” one student said.

The presentation was part of Speich’s Kindness Project, an annual inclusion into the curriculum of every Academy Hill School classroom. The projects are designed to tie in with the district’s Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports program, which utilizes positive reinforcement to teach students to be responsible and safe. At Academy Hill School, the tenants of PBIS are expressed to students as “respectful, responsible and kind.”

Speich, a Special Education teacher, and her students learned about all sorts of canine helpers, from military dogs to service animals. They sent items overseas to military dogs and read books about working dogs. They met with U.S. Army Sgt. Helaina Lake, a veteran injured in Afghanistan, and her dog Xena. A regular visitor to the class is Speich’s own therapy dog, Captain, who helped spark the idea for the canine project.

Pillsbury explained that Jackson could tell when she was going to have a seizure, before anyone else knew, and was trained to protect her once she fell. The level of training required to be a true service dog was high, including no barking and the ability to go to the bathroom on command. Jackson was also trained to ignore commands from anyone other than Pillsbury, an issue of safety. Pillsbury carries a piece of paper explaining how service dogs function, including a request that people not attempt to pet them. She compared Jackson to a wheelchair, in terms of his importance, and asked people to “be respectful.”

“Oh, that’s one of our codes in our school,” Speich pointed out to her students.

Adam Speich with Captain, a therapy dog, and students at Academy Hill School listen to Roni Pillsbury.
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