In February, Northville Public Schools (NPS) expanded its Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) dog program, bringing four SEL dogs into the district permanently.

This program is another step in the district’s commitment to support the “Whole Child,” an educational framework that focuses on nurturing all aspects of a student’s development including cognitive, social, emotional, mental and physical.

“By integrating highly trained SEL dogs into the daily fabric of our schools, Northville is providing students and staff with a powerful tool for emotional regulation, stress reduction and connection,” the district said.

The new four-legged, full-time members of the Northville school community were provided through Campus K9s, a nonprofit that specializes in preparing therapy and support dogs specifically for educational environments.

The organization started as Green Acres Labradors, which has bred Labrador retrievers for more than 13 years. About eight years ago, the group began placing dogs in schools and officially launched as a nonprofit in 2023 to be able to help scholarship some of the costs to districts who needed financial assistance.

Campus K9s owner Kristy Green explained that the process is not one-size-fits-all and not all dogs are used the same way.

“We get an idea of what each district’s needs are and how they’re going to use the dog within the school, then we train that dog to meet the needs of each building,” Green said.

The dogs are selected at about 12 weeks and from there the team focuses on socializing them and training them in the schools where they’ll be working, so they get used to the kids and the environment.

“Relationship is our number one priority,” Green said. “We really focus on the dogs building a relationship with their hosts and handlers. They have to trust the person at the end of the leash.”

Hosts are selected through an application process to ensure that they’re a good fit for the dog, and when it comes to life at home, each dog goes home with their host each day and eventually retires with them after their seven-to-eight-year career working in the school.

NPS welcomed four labs this year that are each assigned to different schools: Brulee at Northville High School (NHS), Jesper at Hillside Middle School, Kane at Meads Mill Middle School and Nick at Cooke School.

“It’s been amazing seeing the students’ faces light up when she’s out in the hallways,” said Kate Schultz, NHS counselor who hosts Brulee. “I have students stopping by every day at lunch to get their ‘Brulee time’, as they call it.”

Over the years, Green has witnessed countless positive changes in students and schools through Campus K9s.

She described how the SEL dogs can do so much more, and help students self-regulate and get back to class faster than any other tool school staff has.

“In his short time here, we’ve already seen him do powerful things, like help students share very difficult things, encourage students who struggle to speak find their brave voices and support students through anxiety in the school environment,” said Keely Bartel, social worker at Hillside, who hosts Jesper.

The district looks forward to the lasting impact its new SEL dogs will have on the school community.

Visit www.campusk9s.com or www.northvilleschools.org for more information and updates from NPS.