Kammy, a yellow lab therapy dog, will be working in the office of the Berks County Children’s Alliance Center and the Berks County district attorney’s Victim/Witness Unit at the courthouse. Amy Sundstrom, director of the center, is Kammy’s primary handler. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)
Kammy had a hard time keeping still. Everyone was staring at her, the camera was fixed on her every move and new people kept popping their heads through the doorway of the waiting room where she was supposed to be showing off her sitting skills.
The 2-year-old yellow Labrador was a ball of energy, a bit too amped up by all the attention to focus.
But that’s something that will get better with time, something that she will work on improving. After all, creating calmness is going to be her job.
Kammy is the Berks County courthouse’s first dedicated facility dog to provide emotional support for people dealing with traumatic experiences. She recently started her tenure as a calming presence in a stressful environment.
One of the top responsibilities of a courthouse dog is to help traumatized children and victims of crime. The dog can also provide emotional support for those who are working in the courthouse.
Kammy will live with Amy Sundstrom, director of the Children’s Alliance Center and Victim/Witness Unit supervisor for the district attorney’s office and her primary handler. Sundstrom was the one who first had the idea to get a dog for the courthouse.
“The first time I saw a facility dog was probably about 10 years ago, and I went to District Attorney John Adams right away with the proposal to bring one here,” she said. “He was just as enthusiastic as I was about having a facility dog.”
At that time, Sundstrom was only overseeing the victim and witness unit, so her original thought was to bring the dog into that office.
Sundstrom said she went to work researching the benefits of having a facility dog to build her case for securing the funding needed to help cover the cost.
“It definitely took us some time to figure things out,” she said.
She eventually applied for and received funding through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency under the federal Victim of Crime Act of 1984 grant program. The goal of the funding is to provide services to benefit victims in the aftermath of crime.
But Sundstrom hit a roadblock when it came time to find a dog.
The county languished on a waiting list for a facility dog with one organization for nearly three years as the COVID-19 pandemic slowed up the process. And during that time the need for a facility dog grew.
In 2021, the county took over the operations of the Children’s Alliance Center.
Sundstrom said the office has about 20 volunteer therapy dogs. But the handlers must be with their dogs at all times, and that means the dogs can’t be present when kids who are victims of or witnesses to crimes are being interviewed.
“So that is the main reason why we wanted to do this ourselves,” she said. “For those children who are really timid and scared to go back into that interview room, they will have the comfort of the dog to be with them.
“We try to make children feel as comfortable as we can, but they know they’re coming in here to talk about something that is not a pleasant thing, so we do anything we can to make things a little easier for them.”
When victim advocate Laura Kemp-Reichard sets up an interview, she asks families if they want a therapy dog present.
“You can see the difference that the dogs make,” she said. “They come in kind of timid with their head down and as soon as they see that dog they kind of perk up. It makes them leave here not thinking about the story they had to tell over and over again but with memories of their new furry friend.”
As 2023 rolled around with the courthouse still without a dog of its own, Sundstrom began reaching out to other organizations. That’s when she found Paws and Affection in Montgomery County.
She sent an email in February asking if they had any dogs that would fit their needs and was pleasantly surprised when founder and executive director Laura O’Kane responded the next day informing her that the organization had a dog who would be perfect.
“It was kind of kismet because we knew the facility role was right for Kammy and here I get this email,” O’Kane said.
Kammy has undergone extensive training over the course of the last two years with the organization and has lived with a foster family to help her get accustomed to life at home.
O’Kane said the trainers wanted Kammy to have good manners and be comfortable with new people. They wanted to make sure she was exposed to the kind of attention she will receive and the kind of environment she will be in while on the job.
“Her favorite thing, and what she’s best at, is being there for someone,” she said. “Kammy loves human contact and will stay with someone for a long time, which is what is needed in this situation. She is also friendly, energetic and can offer levity to a very difficult situation.”
Kammy is making history for her organization, becoming the first dog the group has trained that will spend her days working in a government building.
Jennifer Hack, the forensic interviewer in the Children’s Alliance Center, will be a secondary handler for Kammy. She will be able to have Kammy in the room with her when she conducts interviews with kids.
“Knowing that I can have a dog in there if the child wants a dog in there is something that I’m super excited about because it’s just another tool in our toolbox,” she said. “I’ve read many articles about how children are more likely to disclose more when a dog is present.”
That reluctance to disclose is one issue confronted by child forensic interviewers. Estimates of disclosure rates of abuse vary greatly across studies, but the consensus among researchers is that a meaningful proportion of children are unlikely to disclose abuse during an investigative interview. But dogs have proved to be a big help.
According to a 2018 study published in the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, the presence of a dog in a forensic interview may have acted as a buffer or safeguard for children who were disclosing details of sexual abuse.
The results of the study found that the heart rate and blood pressure of children who had a canine present at the interview were lower compared to the control group. The authors of the study say these findings suggest having a certified canine available during these interviews had a real value for children.
Adams said he’s excited to welcome Kammy on board and to see the impact she has.
“I had heard from my counterparts in other counties about the benefits of having a comfort dog for victims,” the district attorney said. “And I felt that we needed to do the same thing for the victims, especially for the children that we see here. I thought it was just a great program.”
Adams said he knows firsthand the calming presence dogs can have.
“I have always had a dog, so I know the benefits of having a dog around,” he said. “There is just a comfort that a dog can bring to people. And that has actually been proven.”
Adams said his office will make certain it uses the dog in a fashion that will not be prejudicial and will be neutral to all those involved in the court system, as they already do with the dogs that visit the courthouse.
“We have had dogs coming in now for the last couple of years, and I have had a lot of interactions with those dogs and they are just wonderful,” he said. “They can really offer things that we as human beings cannot offer to some of our most vulnerable victims.”
Adams said he thinks Kammy is going to be a big hit at the courthouse.
“Kammy is well behaved, unlike my dogs,” he said with a chuckle. “This is a win-win for my office, and we will continue to use the other dogs who have been here in the past.”
