By: Sofia Escudero

McCaskey has announced a new facility dog which is expected to be introduced to the McCaskey community in March. Nado, short for Tornado, is McCaskey’s newest addition. He is a young pup, just barely one years old, and is excited to get to work. 

Many McCaskey staff members have been working on the project of getting a facility dog for McCaskey over the past 2 years. Mrs. Palmer shared “We had seen the amazing effects facility dogs have had on students in other schools, and wanted to try it out.” There are high hopes for Nado in McCaskey, with hopes to see more positivity and community bonding in McCaskey. 

Nado was bred to specifically be a therapy or service dog— he is trained to help with social and emotional health in students and staff. Nado originally was training to become a service dog, but as he aged, handlers realized he is a perfect facility dog. Nado has this calm demeanor, where he isn’t overly hyper and can calm people down. He has a 17 member handler team, including Mrs. Palmer, a McCaskey ESL teacher. Nado has just recently graduated from his facility training program on February 10th, and is now in the last phase to become McCaskey’s official school dog. His final two week program includes introducing him to the school and getting him acclimated to McCaskey. You might see him walking down the halls as he is slowly being introduced to classrooms and students.

On a walk I took with Nado during our interview, I learned that Nado has learned multiple commands such as “go see” and “leave it”. As they walk into classrooms, students are asked to cross their arms if they do not want Nado to approach them, and if he starts to get too close, handlers will tell him to “leave it” and he will immediately turn away. On the other hand if she says to “go see”, he will approach the person and will usually rest his head on their lap. “It’s his super power, he can just lay his head on you forever.” Nado’s most beneficial technique is lying his head down on your lap to lower one’s blood pressure, this helps to calm students down and deescalate situations. Students can also pet Nado, as he loves the attention. 

When Nado is officially introduced to McCaskey, he will have a sign out sheet. Teachers and counselors will be able to sign him out for class visits. Students may possibly also be able to use PBIS points to take him out on walks with handler supervision. Just like any worker, Naldo will have breaks to rest and get back to full form for future visits.

The handlers have been in contact with the school nurses who have confirmed that McCaskey has no severe dog allergies in the building. Although some students may still be wary of the dog, handlers are planning to put a color system in place. Classrooms will have colored signs outside to communicate whether students want Nado to visit or not. Red will signify absolutely do not come in, yellow students are slightly wary, but willing to try, and green which signifies absolutely come in.

Facility dogs usually retire after six to eight years, but once Nado retires we can expect this project to continue. “We are going to try to continue having facility dogs, but we’ll have to see Nado’s performance first.” Mrs. Palmer added. There is already talk of a second facility dog being introduced. Possibly one dog per building, one for JP and one for East. There is another dog in the running and McCaskey can expect a second facility dog in the upcoming year.