Comfort Dog Luca Brings Positivity to Blue Hills Regional Technical School
Blue Hills Regional Technical School welcomes a new four-legged member to their community, Luca the Comfort Dog. (Photo courtesy Blue Hills Regional Technical School)
CANTON — Blue Hills Regional Technical School welcomes a new four-legged member to their community, Luca the Comfort Dog. He will be found on campus this upcoming school year to help put smiles on students’ faces.
The school's previous comfort dog, Enzo, was diagnosed with Lymphoma and passed away on Nov. 10, 2023. Luca, a 1-year-old Golden Labradoodle, will follow in Enzo’s footsteps as a therapy dog in training, preparing to volunteer and bring comfort to people of all ages.
Therapy dogs are trained to provide affection, comfort, and support in various settings, including schools, hospitals, assisted living facilities, memory care facilities, libraries, preschools, hospice care, and during grief counseling or disaster relief efforts. Interaction with Luca is entirely voluntary.
Extensive training and certification is required to ensure that dogs have the temperament and skills needed for this important role. Luca has completed the Puppy Star, Pre-Canine Good Citizen (Pre-CGC), and AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) courses and is currently enrolled in the AKC Community Canine Good Citizen program. Training includes learning not to be startled by loud noises, resisting the urge to eat dropped items, and remaining calm around strangers.
Students often exhibit various forms of trauma, and therapy dogs have been found to significantly improve their social, emotional, vocational, and academic needs. This is due to their extraordinary ability to sense human emotions by picking up subtle changes in scent, such as perspiration when someone is nervous or fearful.
Having therapy dogs in schools provides many benefits including:
- Enhance memory, problem-solving skills, and executive functioning.
- Encourage children to take more risks in learning.
- Help students refocus on tasks and calm those who are upset.
- Lift spirits and lessen depression.
- Improve self-esteem and make people laugh.
- Increase interest in school activities.
- Provide comfort to students, victims, witnesses, and adults involved in critical or traumatic events.
- Lower blood pressure, reduce fatigue, and improve fine motor skills.
- Motivate daily exercise and improve health for those with physical and mental disabilities.
- Decrease feelings of isolation and increase communication.
- Calm and relax those in need, helping people overcome a fear of dogs.
- Improve social-emotional learning (SEL), cognitive processing, and reading skills, with studies showing a 12-30 percent increase in reading fluency.
- Relieve stress and anxiety, elevate mood, and boost serotonin and dopamine levels.
- Teach responsibility, compassion, and respect for living things.
“I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to bring another comfort dog to Blue Hills,” said Superintendent-Director Rossetti. “Luca is such a charming, intelligent dog. I am confident that he will be an invaluable asset to the wellbeing of our students and staff.”
Superintendent Rossetti works with Unique Souls Canine Training to provide Luca with the training necessary to become a therapy dog. She has worked with the training service since she piloted her first comfort dog Enzo about four years ago.
Luca cruising in the convertible. (Photo courtesy Blue Hills Regional Technical School)
Luca playing with his ball in the school courtyard. (Photo courtesy Blue Hills Regional Technical School)
Luca staying cool in his shades. (Photo courtesy Blue Hills Regional Technical School)