Great Dane a hit in schools

By Jonathan Phelps jphelps@eagletribune.com

ANDOVER — Meet Timmy.

He's a 160-pound Great Dane with a lustrous black coat often seen visiting students at several Andover schools.

His owner, Joan Collins, an adapted physical education teacher, brings him to school several times a week depending on her schedule with her classes being at West Middle School and Wood Hill Middle School.

Timmy — a 2-year-old certified therapy dog — doesn't have a specific job description with the School Department, but every time he visits the schools, the students love seeing him, Collins said.

"They tell me he cheers them up and makes them really happy," Collins said.

Tuesday morning, William Rullo, a student at West Middle School had the opportunity to greet Timmy outside as he arrived in Collins' van for a visit.

"I didn't know he would be so excited to see us," said William, 13. "I am so happy Ms. Collins brings him. I love dogs."

Fellow student Allison Clark, 13, said it makes her feel happy every time she gets to see Timmy.

"My favorite part of him coming to school is just getting to see him and hang around him," Allison said, adding that she thinks it is "cool" that Timmy is allowed in school.

Timmy helps many students in a variety of ways, including language development, social interaction, communication, and motivation, Collins said.

As an adapted physical education teacher, Collins works with students with various special needs, and Timmy helps many of them in different ways. Timmy becomes an added motivator and provides encouragement for these students to get through challenging classes, said Sherrie Kimball, a teaching assistant.

"It brightens their day," said Karen Szarek, a special education teacher who works with Collins at West Middle School. "If the students had a tough day they get to see Timmy as a reward."

Timmy is "non-judgmental" and "non-threatening," Collins said, which helps students open up to talk about their feelings, start conversations and even meet new friends. Timmy also helps students with self-esteem, depression, anxiety and loneliness issues, she said.

As a certified therapy dog, Timmy had to take multiple obedience classes and went through a canine good citizenship program. He is also a member of Therapy Dog International.

Recently, Collins collaborated with other teachers for a Spanish and art multi-disciplinary project in which seventh-graders from the Wood Hill Middle School drew pictures of Timmy and wrote about him in Spanish.

The class also wrote a song in Spanish about Timmy and worked with some second-graders at High Plain Elementary School during certain aspects of the project.

"The teacher told me, 'You'll never believe how much more Spanish they are retaining now because of Timmy and the project,'" Collins said.

Timmy is not the first therapy dog that Collins has owned. She said she became interested in doing work with therapy dogs because she had observed other therapy dogs in hospitals and nursing homes. "I saw what bringing in a dog could do for people," Collins said.

She picked a Great Dane to train as a therapy dog because they are "gentle giants," calm and loving, she said.

There are other therapy dogs throughout the district, including Murray, a golden retriever, at High Plain Elementary and Mandy, a cocker spaniel, at Sanborn Elementary School.