Where are They Now? Jennifer VonLintel

Jennifer VonLintel, formerly Jennifer Ludlam, is a Niwot High School and Niwot Elementary School graduate who now works as a counselor utilizing therapy dogs at B. F. Kitchen Elementary School in Loveland.

VonLintel also teaches other educators to train therapy dogs for their schools as well. She was recently featured in the book "Dogs in Schools," by Helen Lewis and Russell Grigg, which describes principles of healthy, safe relationships between therapy dogs and students.

VonLintel's roots are close to Niwot. "I grew up by Haystack. I went to Niwot Elementary and Longmont Junior High at the time, and then Niwot High School, so I'm a graduate of the school system there," VonLintel explained. "I used to ride my bike into Niwot on the weekends and pick up the Sunday paper. So I'm very attached to Niwot."

After briefly joining the army, and working in high tech data storage, VonLintel realized that she no longer wanted to work with computers, she preferred teaching kids, and thus began a counseling career at the B. F. Kitchen elementary school. Since then, she has begun to incorporate counseling and therapy dog work through a system called Animal Assisted Interventions, also known by the acronym AAI.

Her first experience with therapy dogs in schools was fourteen years ago through a research project being conducted by Human-Animal Bond in Colorado, or HABIC, which is based out of Colorado State University and works closely with the Thompson School District, which has accepted therapy dogs in schools for 30 years.

"Within the second session, I just saw such a positive response from the student working with the therapy dog that I needed to learn more," VonLintel said about the beginning of her work and incorporation of therapy dogs in her counseling career. "So I started researching what I could. There wasn't a whole lot around at that time, and I ended up getting a golden retriever, and he worked with me for ten years at school. His name was Copper, but the kids called him Copper Wopper Belly-Flopper. He and I really learned a lot together about this work and more about the research behind it."

According to VonLintel, dogs can alter human brain chemistry. They have been proven to reduce cortisol levels and increase oxytocin, decreasing stress and building a sense of connection. VonLintel has been working with animals ever since her first encounter with therapy dogs in a school setting and helping educators train their own therapy dogs for the school with the assistance of HABIC.

The program lasts nine months with four different levels. The first two levels are basic training inside of a school, paying attention to a dog's communications through body language. The third incorporates adult volunteers with dogs learning to take cues from new handlers, and the last stage introduces student volunteers working with the dogs as well.

These educators come from various different professions in a school environment, as well as training dogs for any age group, from elementary to high school. They're starting training on the sixth group of dog teams, and the fifth group will be fully trained and ready to help kids at the start of the next school year. The district now has 17 different schools working with therapy dogs.

Most of the volunteer therapy dogs outside of this program come from HABIC with CSU, Caring Canines, and Larimer Animal-People Partnership (LAPP), although the Thompson school district also works with national organizations such as Pet Partners, Alliance of Therapy Dogs (ATD), and HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response.

"It's amazing how many more students sign up for extracurricular activities and how much more engaged they are," VonLintel said in an interview about the AAIs that she has participated in and coordinated. "We're seeing improvements in attendance, there are just so many different ways that integrating animals appropriately into schools can be beneficial."

"It's fun for us too!" VonLintel added, "Even on days when I bring my own dogs in or when we have a team come in, you can ask our front office staff here. They love having volunteer dogs come in because they get the time to pet them. It builds a very healthy community."

According to VonLintel, as well as the school's own research on how therapy dogs can be used to decrease depression and anxiety in students in addition to helping kids learn and overcome frustration and stress, parents have also been asking to have their kids participate in an AAI.

There are three different activities associated with the Animal Assisted Interventions -Animal Assisted Education, Therapy, and Activities. In Animal Assisted Education, dogs help students learn. According to VonLintel, one of the most difficult subjects for elementary students is reading. In this program, kids read to therapy dogs, which takes away a little bit of the stress and frustration that comes with learning something new and difficult.

Animal Assisted Therapy can help students with motor skills, regulation, executive functioning, and through activities such as brushing dogs, clipping and unclipping a dog's leash or throwing a ball for a dog. Finally, Animal Assisted Activities are general school activities with the therapy dog teams attending. They have come to extracurricular club activities, helped in community garden events, and helped manage street crossings in the mornings.

VonLintel also runs a facebook group called School Therapy Dogs, where teachers and other associates in schools can share information about dog training and stories. The group has over 12,000 followers, and encourages people with dogs that love meeting new people to join in and train therapy dogs as well.