Gily
Gily, Our Therapy Dog
Gily is a golden doodle who was born in August of 2021 and joined our school family that Fall, at 9 weeks old. She has since gone through temperament testing and therapy dog training so that she can support the social and emotional development of our students (and staff!).
Why Does KME Have a Therapy Dog?*
As human beings, we have a natural need and desire to be connected to others and when we are not, the feeling of emotional danger can creep in and cause our nervous system to be unregulated. When we feel safe and connected to another, co-regulation is occurring. As humans, we can adjust our behavior and the environment in a number of ways to create this feeling of safety for others; our body language, tone of voice, facial expressions all communicate much more than our words ever could.
Our individual nervous systems pick up on the safety cues dogs often give off. When a dog feels safe, it gets closer to you; it wags its tail; it cuddles; it looks you in the eye. Everything about a therapy dog’s calm body language expresses his or her safety and instantaneously gives our nervous system cues to feel safe too.
We all crave safe spaces. Spaces we feel connected and secure. A nurturing dog's focus is on the human at all times; it makes sense that the science tells us that dogs reduce feelings of loneliness and increase feelings of social support given their full attention to being present with their people.
Gily's presence helps our students to feel more connected to one another, their teachers, and other staff in our building. We love our Gily!
*Taken from "Ever Wonder Why Dogs are Present in Therapy? Counselor Trainee Shares How Her Therapy Dog and the Polyvagal Theory Help Her Students" by Keri Perdrix, September 22, 2022
