Therapy Dogs Bring Comfort to Plymouth Police Department
Police officers often deal with serious situations. The level of responsibility can often its toll on them physically and emotionally.
That’s why the Plymouth Police Department is partnering with Courage Service Dogs to bring in two therapy labs every week.
“As a huge advocate of officer wellness, I thought that would probably be a really fun thing to bring into the police department, or a good thing to bring in to help our officers with their stress and anxiety and just with everything that we deal with daily,” said Plymouth police officer Sara Klaes.
The dogs, 7-year-old Cricket and 8-year-old Lexi, have specialized training in PTSD. Klaes says they pick up on anxious cues and offer what they can to help, whether that be a paw on your lap or a nuzzle to your hands or face.
“If your hands are over your face, or you are kind of shaking, they will kind of break it up by putting their nose in between your hands or a little lick to bring your mind out of whatever you are kind of going through in that moment,” said Klaes.
Therapy dogs visit the Plymouth Police Department
The furry visitors spend six hours interacting with officers and other staff.
“Today we are going to kind of have them in one room together and staff can kind of come in when they have a break or when they need some companionship, or a little snuggle, or want to throw a ball,” said Klaes.
The canines provide comfort to officers who sometimes see the worst side of humanity
“You see things that you are not normally use to and you got to kind of hold it in and go to the next call and a lot of the times we don’t have time to process,” said Klaes.
Officers are sworn to serve and protect, but Klaes says taking a pause for themselves is also important.
“It’s important to take care of your mental health and yourself as well so we can better take care of others and I think animals are the best way to do that,” she said.
Lexi is a therapy dog trained to help people with PTSD.
Cricket and Lexi also visit the Plymouth Fire Department.
Officer Klaes says other police departments have expressed interest in the program.
