Kids head to the counselor’s waiting area after the lunch bell to pet the soft, smooth, and joyful dogs after eating a good lunch and possibly relieve stress from school work. With kids feeling happy, in awe and feeling destressed, Petra Mann, the crisis counselor at Johnson feels that her mission is accomplished. When the students bend down or sit to pet these comfortable and well behaved dogs, they automatically feel joy when they look into the dogs eyes and pet them.
Mistreated and abandoned dogs get captured and taken to the pound because they are soon to be put down, but with the Canines Who Care program, dogs are given a second chance and are trained to bring joy to people they meet.
Jyl Hershmann-Ross, came to PAWS to have her own dog, Vito, trained. Over the summer, Vito passed away, so Jyl had no dog to travel with. That was until she met her friend’s dog, Dash. She started to train with Dash for six months and he passed his Canine Good Citizen test. With that out of the way, Jyl was ready to bring the joy back to others on Mondays.
“Oh, for sure, I’ve had so many kids looking forward to it,” Ms. Mann said. “And kids asking ‘Are the dogs here yet?’ They’re very excited. While I’m out there, they say ‘This is the best day ever.’ and ‘It’s so calming to have them here’”
With the dogs here, it has brought joy to the student body and it shows from a student who goes when he gets the chance to, Ruben Guerrero.
“I like all of the dogs but in terms of favorite, it’s Dash, because he’s very pretty and soft,” Ruben said. “I think the dogs can and have helped people who have been in bad moods or who need to feel better.”
But people don’t need to even know about the dogs to go see them. “I didn’t hear about them,” Ruben said. “I just saw them and wanted to pet them.” It seems that the dogs have effects on people before they even know of their visit.
Ms. Mann also said that the dogs from the Canines Who Care program go to all of Hays CISD schools. She implemented bringing the dogs to Johnson because she had seen the effect it had on other students at other schools in Hays.
“It’s really helped students and that’s why I wanted to have them here on a regular basis” Ms. Mann said.
Another student, Jeremy Ramirez, who went to see them when they were here on Oct. 16, said, “No, I don’t go every Monday; it was actually my first time.”
He said, “Of course dogs help people, they are too lovable to not too.”
He found out about the dogs by word of mouth from his friends, which seems that the dogs are a thing that everyone seems to know about now.
