School social worker Kelly Robinson had one of her dreams come true when she acquired a facility dog a few years ago to help with her job. Since then, Davis, a good-natured golden retriever, has become a fixture at Indian Trails Elementary School in Frankfort.

“I equate it to when you’re driving in the car and you see a dog, you can’t help but smile,” Robinson said. “So seeing this sweet, beautiful thing at school sends you into a good mood. And the support she provides to everyone – students, staff, families. Everyone just loves the comfort that she provides in so many different ways. We as humans can only do so much. Dogs send a different vibe.”

She adopted Davis in November 2022, and they worked together at Frankfort Square School for two years before it closed and she moved to Indian Trails.

“This is my 16th year in the position and it’s always been a dream of mine to have a therapy dog,” Robinson shared. “It was always something that I wanted to do because I thought it would be the coolest thing to have a dog at school to help the students and staff. I am a huge dog person.”

That dream came true after a friend connected her with Healing Hearts Comfort Dogs, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that raises and trains working dogs to interact with people experiencing trauma, stress and physical and emotional uncertainty in their lives.

After working through the process for approval, garnering the support of her principal and the School Board and raising money for the organization’s fee, Davis was on her way. And she was a perfect fit from the start.

“She is very calm, very relaxed. She’s excited when students first come to my room” and brings them toys, Robinson said. “If you’re giving her the attention, she’ll sit there and take it all in. If you start petting her and she starts giving you her paw, you know you’re good with her. … She likes the stimulation — the constant flow of people. It can be exhausting if we’ve been in a classroom. She’s good about telling me she needs a break.”

Robinson thought Davis’ popularity might wear off, but that hasn’t happened. “If I could have an iPad running by all the time recording with people saying ‘Davis’ as she walks by,” she said. “The running joke is they say hi to Davis, but who is Mrs. Robinson? I just tell them that if you’re saying hi to Davis, you’re saying hi to me.”

The pair have a busy schedule most days. “As a school social worker, I’m going in and out of classrooms, grabbing students for groups, checking on students. Teachers let me know if someone is having a bad day. A teacher might say ‘Grandpa is sick, so can she spend some time with Davis?’” she said. “We also use reward time if students are on behavior charts or behavioral systems, they can earn Davis time. They can play with her, brush her. We have treat puzzles they can do with her.

“Sometimes it’s just random like they just took a test and did a good job so we’ll walk through to de-stress,” she added. “Sometimes we’ll have teachers reach out and say ‘My class met their whole class goal and wanted Davis time.”

Although Davis seems to enjoy being with everyone, her favorite people are the custodians.

“Maybe she feels that that can be a stressful job. Maybe she sensed that they need more comfort,” Robinson said. “I was in my room today, and she perked up, and I knew the custodian was nearby!”

Davis is one of two facility dogs Healing Hearts Comfort Dogs has placed in a school. “Generally, a facility dog is one that is trained to be almost like given a job,” said Kim Hardt, of Tinley Park, who formed the organization in January 2022 with Kim Laidlaw, also of Tinley Park.

“The main goal with a facility dog is to be placed permanently in a school environment, nursing facility, courthouse, dispatch centers. It’s similar to the comfort dogs — to provide comfort in these facilities,” Hardt said. “They get their pictures in the yearbook.”

Healing Hearts uses puppy trainers to get its dogs up to snuff and pass a “good citizen’s test” that consists of 10 obedience commands. “The training is done from a puppy as early as eight weeks old to 15 months of age. This is where the puppy fosters come in so the dog is trained to basic obedience, learning day-to-day with the family, house manners, interacting with different people, the household. The dogs attend training on a weekly basis with the organization,” Hardt said.

Once a dog has graduated from training, someone from a school will adopt the dog, whether it’s a teacher, librarian, principal, nurse or social worker. “They will adopt that dog and that dog then will attend school with them, go with them daily,” Hardt explained. “What the dog has provided has helped children who may have some emotional issues, nonverbal. It helps the staff release stress just by having the dog and its presence makes people feel relieved, better happier. We always say we provide comfort and smiles to all.”

Adoptive owners must pass the organization’s screenings and pay all the dog’s expenses.

“Healing Hearts has no legal responsibility,” Laidlaw said. “We continue giving them training for the rest of their life and assistance for whatever they need, but the food and the veterinary expenses fall on the person who has adopted that dog.”

In addition to facility dogs, Healing Hearts provides comfort and therapy dogs for events such as a recent Honor Flight Chicago sendoff. They also deploy to school book fairs, libraries, retirement homes, mental health facilities and Frankfort’s National Night Out. It even had a funeral home in Justice reach out after a family requested a comfort dog.

It was the organization’s work with Honor Flight Chicago that led to a recent honor from the Swallow Cliff Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Palos Heights. “The DAR is itself a service organization, but we also like to recognize other individuals or groups who provide a service to the community through volunteerism,” said Gale Shafer, the chapter’s Community Service Awards chair.

“The group first came to the attention of our chapter regent through Honor Flight Chicago. She met this group and their dogs when seeing off the veterans for their honor flight trips,” Shafer said. “It is kind of an overall thing that they really do provide a wonderful service in a variety of ways. They reach out to many different aspects and take their dogs there and give people a bit of comfort and reduce anxiety. … The fact that these women created this on their own, we thought it was worthy of recognition that they did this.”

As of March 1, Healing Hearts has 28 certified therapy dog teams, 12 facility working dogs and 12 puppy raisers. More puppy raisers are needed to train the golden retriever puppies the organization uses. Healing Hearts pays for veterinary bills and provides essentials, including a crate, bowls, a leash, a collar and the first bag of food. Homes with children and other dogs are welcome, as well as cats and birds. Those with quieter households are asked to play videos on YouTube so the puppies get used to specific noises.

Hardt and Laidlaw both have dogs in the therapy program, Maple and Embra.

“The two of them are so intuitive. They seek out the person who needs them the most and will stay there with them,” Laidlaw said. “And I’m assuming – I don’t speak dog and can’t read their minds – but I’m assuming it’s when they move to another person, they’ve removed a lot of stress that the other individual had. It’s uncanny to see how intuitive they are with the child or adult who needs their comfort at that time.”

Laidlaw finds her volunteer job rewarding. “It’s such an emotional experience with you as a handler to see how a dog can lift the spirits of another human being, whether that’s someone in hospice or honor flight veterans or one of the 911 operators who has had a really bad day or whether it’s our courthouse dog (at the Cook County Courthouse at 26th and California in Chicago) that relieves the stress of children who have to do depositions. It’s so rewarding to know that these dogs can make such an impact in the lives of other people.”

“For me, the reward comes at seeing the relief, the smiles. There’s no money in the world that could justify the good feeling on what these dogs could do for somebody. Just to make people feel better about themselves and the relief of stress that we all live under,” Hardt said. “I can vouch for the Honor Flight to see the veterans being welcomed back and the dogs welcoming them. The veterans kneeling on the floor and crying and for giving them the welcome that they never got before. It makes your heart feel good.”

The organization accepts donations of dog-related items and money, including the chance to name a dog in exchange for a $2,000 gift. “That person gets updates on the dog every three months and can meet the dog,” Laidlaw said. Information is at healingheartscomfortdogs.org/.

Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.