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Autumn Sinnett

Sophomore Aaron Mcafee meets the new therapy dog, Winnie.

The high school has added a new member to the staff, Winnie, a Goldendoodle therapy dog. Math teacher Elisabeth Glover works with Winnie throughout the day and was the person who originally believed that she had the right personality to become a therapy dog. 

“[Winnie’s] personality just really lent itself to being a therapy dog so I decided to start the training to make her a certified therapy dog,” Glover said.

After 17 months of training, Winnie passed her evaluation to become a therapy dog. After her certification, Glover began wondering about Winnie’s ability to use the skills she had learned. Glover wanted other people to be able to benefit from Winnie’s presence.

“Therapy dogs just have such a great effect on people and it’s so nice to get to see her with students and even teachers,” Glover said. “I think that Winnie also really loves what she does and that she gets to be around people all day.”

Glover loves getting to bring Winnie to work with her. Even though Winnie struggles with health issues, she still loves coming to school when she can.

“I love getting to see people light up when they see her and she does the same [with] them. She has been struggling with health issues for a while now so it’s really nice to see her happy,” Glover said.

Sophomore Aaron Mcafee thinks having a therapy dog in the school is a good idea. Mcafee has had the opportunity to play with Winnie throughout the day.

“First getting to see Winnie was like seeing a loved one, there’s immediately a connection. I think that having her here is going to be really beneficial for students that are having a rough day,” Mcafee said.

Winnie is located in Glover’s room in the Summit Academy throughout the day. Winnie is calm and hypoallergenic which expands the amount of people that can be around her. 

“I would recommend going to see Winnie to anyone, she’s a great loving dog and she makes you immediately feel better,” Mcafee said.