Williston’s new support dog has given the campus a breath of relief.
The Williston counselors have brought in a black lab named Henry as a support dog in attempt to help comfort students. Williston’s campus has loved him so far.
Over the summer, the company “Puppies Behind Bars” connected with the counselors at Williston. Henry was put through months of training and preparations to be ready for Williston.
Meg Colenback, Williston’s Director of Mental Health Counseling and owner of Henry, has trained Henry to make campus feel like a safer place.
“Puppies Behind Bars sent me an email about sending us one of their dogs, and I joked about it to Coach K, [Dean of Students David Koritkoski]” she said. “I got more information about the program and decided I really did want a dog.”
Colenback then got approval from Koritkoski and CFO Peter Holden.
“Puppies Behind Bars” is a program that trains puppies from the young age of 8 weeks to around 20 months, which is when Colenback was able to take Henry home. Williston is the first boarding school to branch out and connect with “Puppies Behind Bars,” and the third school to take one of their dogs. According to their website, “Puppies Behind Bars is ultimately about dogs and people. It’s a small organization — the dedicated staff numbers less than fifteen.”
Puppies Behind Bars, according to chairitywatch.org, graduates between 16 and 20 service dogs.
Anne Zager, one of Williston’s Mental Health and Wellness Counselors, believes that Henry has already made in impact on campus after just over a week of being on campus.
“I think Henry is very honest and present in a way that I’ve just seen him organically go up to people like in the moment they needed to drop in and to smile,” she said. “It cuts through everything when you’re with animals who are fully in the moment and fully attending to you.”
“I think in a lovely way obviously schools are pretty intellectual in fact moving forward fast and here just helps people drop in and slow down and breathe and be with themselves,” she said. “[You] smile and play a little bit and that’s all the simple stuff that is like the most healing and grounding so I am happy with his impact so far and it’s been sweet to see students wanting to take care of him and look out for him too.”
Zager also noticed that Henry is just as new of a student as the new kids on campus.
Henry has learned a lot of commands over his time with “Puppies Behind Bars” and Colenback. When Colenback calls for Henry, she uses the command “Henry, watch me,” and if a student is sitting on the ground and wants to cuddle with Henry then the command is, “Tell me a story.” Henry during his training was taught to help anyone with PTSD; when someone is having a bad dream Henry will turn the lights on and pull the blanket off of the person to wake them up.
On a recent visit to the Health and Wellness building, I noticed Henry is free to just roam around. Henry has many toys, from a Halloween lamb to a grey owl that you might see him walk around with. Henry also jumps on the couch and cuddles if he isn’t in work mode.
The tricks that Henry can do are just extra compared to what he does for the students on campus. There is no command or trick to making someone feel comfortable and Henry does it very well.
Matthew Rodriguez, a senior from Oshawa, Ont., doesn’t have a dog but can still relate to the love Henry can bring.
“I think it makes everyone happy that they can pet a dog and see the dog love the attention,” he said.
Landon Brawn, a sophomore from Cranston, RI., used to have a dog like Henry.
“I used to have a black lab named Brody,” he said. “It’s nice for people having someone to come up and pet and feel some sort of attention when they need it most.”
Yasmine Mckenzie, a senior from Holden, Mass., can relate to how other students love Henry.
“Having dogs on campus makes people happy and smile,” she said. “Dogs make me happy because they are so cute and friendly.”
