Dowling Elementary School has a little bit of Sparkle.
A mini Golden Doodle, Sparkle turned 1 in July and weighs about 26 pounds.
Principal Julie Marshall said Sparkle, now a certified therapy dog, was donated to her. She’s white, fluffy, playful and has big brown eyes.
Marshall’s daughter worked with a nurse practitioner in the emergency room and told the nurse practitioner about her mom’s wish to get a therapy dog for Dowling.
It turns out that the woman and her husband breed Golden Doodles. Sparkle is certified through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs.
“She actually gave her to me with the understanding that I would pursue training and getting her certified as a therapy dog to bring to school. The only thing she asked is that every once awhile I would send her pictures of the kids with her. … I’ve done that throughout the first year” through her daughter, Marshall said.
Sparkle’s jobs have changed over the past year. She comes once a week and greets students in the morning and says good-bye in the afternoon.
Marshall takes her to classrooms if the teacher asks her to, or sometimes the teacher requests Sparkle so someone can read to her.
“She also is an incentive for some of them on their behavior plans. If they do certain things throughout the week, they can earn the privilege to come and make an appointment with me and they’ll sit in here and pet her and talk to her. I have one student that it’s his reward when he takes his medication every day that he’ll get to come on the days that she’s here and sit in here for 10 or 15 minutes. Today he came in and just sat on the floor and she sat in his lap, he was holding her leash. And just loved on him and he talked to her, so it’s been a good reward for some of our kids behavior-wise,” Marshall said.
Sparkle also calms students’ anxiety.
“It’s a good way when they come in anxious like today, the first day back after a long break, to be able to come in and just sit down for a minute; take a few breaths and somehow she just kind of calms those kids; makes them feel like they can get up and get to class and make it through the day, so that’s been a good thing as well,” she added.
Sparkle used to come every day last year.
“But the district this year has a policy for therapy dogs, a process to get (them) approved to bring them on to campus … They approved her to come one day a week. Hopefully it’ll turn into more days per week again. The kids really miss her when she’s not here every day and they ask what day will she be here?”
This year, Sparkle comes to Dowling on Marshall’s schedule when she doesn’t have meetings after work, for example, so she doesn’t have to leave Sparkle at school or take her with her.
“I would like her to come every day and so with the kids — and the teachers,” Marshall said.
Sparkle has a calming effect on everyone.
“It’s interesting that teachers will say, Oh, I’m so glad she’s here today. I needed this,” Marshall said.
She added that Golden Doodles are very smart and intuitive. Sparkle also is not bothered by the 440 kindergarten through fifth grade children who attend Dowling.
“If she hears a kid in the nurse’s office crying she wants to go and sit with them, or she can I guess sense when somebody’s upset, or their anxiety is high. So she’s pretty smart,” Marshall said.
They started training Sparkle when she was about 2 months old with people that went to a dog trainer. They would go to public parks or public places to train and work on basic commands and walking on a leash.
“Of course, when they’re puppies they’re very motivated by food. That really worked well and then when she was … getting older, and able to do more of those things that I started working with the trainer, one on one or just two dogs with the one trainer. We worked on all the things that we knew she would be tested on. The biggest one was staying on a loose leash and staying right beside you because in a therapy situation you don’t want them jumping on people. You don’t want them running at people. Or if something were to come by like a wheelchair, or someone on a walker, you don’t want that to startle them and have them act up. So we really worked a lot on leash training, and then just basic commands. She has really made a lot of progress with that. When we took our test, it consists of three days so I didn’t realize that in the beginning … We did the basic test here at school, just in the environment that she’ll be in most of the time. But then they have you go to a medical facility, and then to a public facility, just to see how the dog will do around different kinds of situations,” Marshall said.
For one of the test days, they went to the At Home store at the mall.
“There was a person on a walker; there were little kids that ran up to her and so the tester is just looking for like can she stay calm in that situation? Will she lay down and let the person pet her if they want to? Does the wheelchair or the walker scare her? Do loud noises startle her? It was three days of different situations with the same kind of things just to see how they would react,” Marshall said.
Sparkle was certified in September.
“Every year they’re required to do so many therapy hours to stay certified,” she added.
Bringing Sparkle to work with her doesn’t count as a therapy hour.
“She has to do some things outside of coming to school with the kids. She can do teacher staff development, and that can count, or we can go to nursing homes. We can go to kids’ birthday parties,” or the hospital to stay certified, Marshall said.
She also has to take out insurance for not only the therapy work, but bringing her to work with her.
“I did all of that and none of that bothers me because I feel like it’s just protecting us up front. … We sent permission slips home this year to every single student, every family to make sure that their families knew that she’s on campus; for the parents to let us know if their children have allergies to pet dander, or if their children are frightened of animals because maybe they’ve had a bad experience in the past,” Marshall said.
She added that the vast majority of parents approved of Sparkle being around the students.
The school also has a poster on the entrance door with Sparkle’s picture saying that she works there, what her name is, how much she weighs, what type of dog she is and how old she is.
Since she’s not around as much this year, parents and students ask what day she’ll be there and why she isn’t there.
“She’s kind of become part of our Dowling community,” Marshall said.
Over the past few years, Marshall said she has read about the benefits of therapy dogs, in particular with children.
“We know that the kids now that are coming to us, especially after COVID, but even before, are coming sometimes with a lot of trauma and a lot mental health needs; a lot of anxiety. Therapy dogs really will help with that, so I was super interested to see how it would go. We had a dog when I was at Hays. It didn’t belong to me and while I was there, she did make a big impact on the personality of the school and so I just thought she would be a great addition to this campus,” Marshall said.
The name Sparkle just stuck and students will call her Sprinkle sometimes.
“She’ll answer to pretty much anything,” Marshall said. But Sparkle fits her personality now.
When she’s not at school, Sparkle stays with Marshall.
To get her in the car, Marshall will tell her they’re going to see the kids. “And her tail just wags,” she said.
When Marshall comes to school on a weekend or during break, she roams the hallway and seems to wonder where all the people are.
“I think she does like it because she likes the attention,” Marshall said.
Nine-year-old third-graders Isaac Thompson and Jemma Gallegos enjoy being around Sparkle.
“She’s very supportive and I like her,” Gallegos said.
She added that having Sparkle around makes the day go faster.
“She’s super fluffy and cute,” Thompson said.
