Scooter brings smiles to Fernan Elementary
<p>Scooter, a retired therapy dog, and owner Jean Robinson, visited Tuesday with students at Fernan Elementary School. It is the 11th year the dog has provided interactive learning in teacher Susie Brott's classroom.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Scooter could not be stumped, no matter how hard the kids tried Tuesday in teacher Susie Brott's class at Fernan Elementary School.
Time and again, the yellow lab found a soft, green, plush bone toy, wherever the children in the room - a life skills class for students with special needs - hid it. Scooter's calm amid a roomful of young children, and expert skill at the game of hide-and-seek, have been honed by years of visits to Brott's classroom with owner Jean Robinson.
This is the 11th year Robinson and Scooter, a 13-year-old retired therapy dog, have visited Brott's students at Fernan.
"A lot of them are afraid of dogs, so this is really special," said Robinson, a longtime educator herself, for the last 11 years at Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy.
While Robinson had the dog turned around, the students took turns finding a secret spot for the bone toy. Then, the kids held the leash while the dog looked for the stash, and retrieved it each time, from a shelf, a closet, a coat cubby.
Jeremy Yaken, 7, was convinced Scooter wouldn't find his hiding spot, in a small room off the main classroom.
The boy grinned as he held Scooter's leash as the dog sniffed about for the toy.
When the animal went right into the small room and picked up the bone, Jeremy squealed and giggled with delight.
Brott and her classroom assistants were feeling joyful as well, but their response was to Jeremy's interaction and reaction to the dog.
"It's so exciting for us to see them so excited and happy," Brott said.
The visits with Scooter promote communication and problem-solving skills.
"We've had kids that are really tactilely defensive," Brott said.
Because they are sensitive to touch sensations, and often easily overwhelmed and fearful of ordinary, everyday experiences, these children are frequently unable to fully benefit from the critical learning that comes from social interaction.
Even if a student's contact with the dog is brief and fleeting, it is cause for celebration in Brott's classroom.
The teacher and her assistants cheered when one small boy, after shying away from the shaggy pooch, offered up an elbow for Scooter to nuzzle against for a few seconds.
Robinson has seen it many times, the growth of a bond between Scooter and child, as a smile or look of excitement appears on the face of a previously fearful, apprehensive student.
"Those are the breakthroughs," Robinson said.