Summit Hill 161 Welcomes Facility Dog

FRANKFORT SQUARE, IL — A new employee has joined Summit Hill School District 161, the first-ever four-legged staff member to Frankfort Square school.

The district's new facility dog, Davis, is training to work in Frankfort Square and other district schools to support and assist students and staff, according to a release from the district.

Davis was introduced to Frankfort Square students and staff after Thanksgiving break.

She even made an immediate impact during student arrival on her very first day, according to the district. When a crying student did not want to leave their parent to enter school, the offer of walking into the building with Davis was enough to stop the tears and entice the child into school.

“The fact that Davis was there, and the student could walk into school with her, turned that kid’s day around,” Principal Jason Isdonas said in a release. “She’s a blessing. It’s amazing how the behavior of some of our students has improved in just two weeks’ time.”

The district had previously been visited by a therapy dog named Sunny, one of Davis' littermates.

"We saw the positive impact that Sunny had with the kids in our Social Emotional Resource Program," social worker Kelly Robinson, who works with the district’s SER program at Frankfort Square, said in a release. “There was improvement in student behavior, fewer melt-downs, more participation, more relaxed demeanor, and they were more engaged in lessons.”

“I had been wanting to get a facility dog for our schools for as long as I can remember, and had talked about it for years,” added Robinson, who is in her 14th year at SHSD161. The district’s theme this school year is "Think BIG," so Robinson proposed the idea of a facility dog to Superintendent Dr. Paul McDermott.

"I was amazed at the behavior of the students when engaging with the therapy dog and the connection they had," McDermott said in a release. "Kelly had already done the leg work, taken training on her own, and was committed to the process of adopting a therapy dog. After looking at the research and seeing it in action, it was easy to see that having a facility dog would benefit our district."

The district's Board of Education unanimously approved the facility dog program at its October meeting.

Robinson, who had already been training to adopt a therapy dog, was officially paired with Davis soon after. The three-year-old female dog had been training with Heartland (now Healing Hearts Comfort Dogs) since she was a puppy, but it had been determined that she was better suited to be a facility dog rather than a service dog, so she “changed careers,” according to the district.

Davis is a certified facility/comfort dog through Healing Hearts, has passed the Canine Good Citizen Test, and knows basic and advanced obedience skills and a variety of commands and hand signals, the district said. She was adopted by Robinson and her husband, Bryan, and came to live with them and their two-year-old lab mix, Groovy, in November.

“Thanks to Kelly and her “Think BIG” idea, Summit Hill School District now has Davis the Dog and a progressive, forward-thinking program intended to support our students and staff,” McDermott said in a release.