Muncie's Central High School has new therapy dog

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) - Merlin, the new therapy dog at Central High School, stood right in the middle of a crowded hallway during a passing period one morning earlier this month, wagging his tail.

Students streamed past him on both sides. They smiled, called his name and paused to pet him. Merlin lapped it up.

"He definitely knows what his job is," a security guard remarked.

Suddenly, when the hallway was almost empty, a special-needs student with his hands raised started hurrying toward the black labradoodle and making noise.

Merlin, leashed to his handler, school counselor Sabrina McKnight, barked loudly at the student, who did a U-turn and jogged away.

"He's big (75 pounds), so he looks like a dog, and he barks like a dog," McKnight said. "But he's still a puppy, young and getting accustomed to things. If kids come running at him, he doesn't know what's going on, so if he does bark, I have to correct him. He's not perfect, but for the most part, the kids love him."

Merlin has been "a real blessing, especially with everything that's been going on," McKnight said, speaking of the school district's financial crisis.

Merlin was only four months old in June when he completed training at Ultimate Canine in Westfield and was acquired by Muncie Community Schools for about $11,000 (raised from private donations). And he's only been on the job since school started two months ago.

On the very first day of school, he came in handy when buses were running late. The "early bus," which was supposed to pick up special education students after school, was not running early.

"Merlin went down there and kept them busy," McKnight said. "He got their minds off the fact the buses were late. They loved him. It really helped. I saw a big difference. He did tricks and they petted him."

That's basically Merlin's job description.

"Any counselors who have upset students or crying students, they send them here, or I go to their office," McKnight said in an interview in her office, which has a crate behind her desk, bones on the floor and toys in a basket. "His job is to lay there, be quiet and let people pet him. For example, one girl came in who was stressed out about college. She was uncertain what she wanted to do. Petting Merlin helped calm her down, enough where she could breathe enough to go back to class."

Stressed-out teachers and administrators also have stopped by. "They just need to pet Merlin," McKnight said. "It's one and done. People come in and pet him; that's their fix for the day."

Merlin has been called to help nervous students relax in speech class.

While he's the school district's therapy dog, he's no watchdog.

"Billy is our police K-9," McKnight noted. "He's here in the afternoon. They have met once (laughter). It wasn't a planned meeting, which we were told to kind of plan it. They kind of turned corners and both were there at the same time. It didn't go as well as planned."

Nor is Merlin the school's mascot. That remains Beau the Bearcat. The two have met.

"Merlin has barked at the Bearcat mascot," McKnight said. "After a while, we had Beau the Bearcat give Merlin some treats. Merlin then obviously liked Beau. I think Merlin was intimidated by this big purple thing that looked like a cat."

According to McKnight, Merlin would have spent the first two months of his life in the home of a puppy raiser before receiving two months of advanced training at Ultimate Canine.

"During the first two months, the lady who has them exposes them to people," she said. "She has puppy parties. People come to her house and hold them. She uses pots and pans and noise makers so they're used to weird sounds."

At two months, Merlin would have been tested. "They hold the dog and pet it and pet it," McKnight said. "If it just lays there, it scores really high. If it's fidgety or doesn't want to be held, it scores really low. When all is said and done, the highest scoring dogs go for service dogs." The others become therapy dogs or pets.

The first dog being raised for Muncie Community Schools was a blonde female who "washed out" as a school therapy dog and became a funeral-home therapy dog.

The idea to get a dog like Merlin first came to McKnight when she was shopping at a candle outlet store in Centerville. She saw someone pushing a shopping cart of puppies. She learned they were being socialized - getting used to new faces, being petted, and a bit of chaos.

A couple of months later, there was a suicide at Shenandoah Schools, where McKnight's daughter attended elementary school. "It affected her," McKnight said. "She knew that the principal was crying, and they sent all the kids home for half a day. She thought the school was closing.

"They ended up getting a therapy dog at Shenandoah to help with the situation. I thought, 'Why don't we have something like that here? Rather than waiting until something happens, why don't we get a therapy dog?' "

McKnight spearheaded a fundraiser after her proposal went up the ladder for school board approval.

Not many Hoosier schools have dogs like Merlin. "When I called Ultimate Canine, they couldn't give me too many resources around Indiana," McKnight said. "Shenandoah's dog is not full-time . Merlin is here all the time. He belongs to the school. He's licensed. He even has his own little ID badge. He's the real deal."

Merlin is obedient to commands including "sit," ''knuckles (high-five)," ''come," ''stay," ''settle," ''free dog," ''kennel up" and "load up."

His traveling crate wouldn't fit in McKnight's car so she and her husband had to purchase an SUV.

When he's at home with the McKnight family in Henry County and his work vest is removed, he acts like a regular puppy. "He wants to play," McKnight said. "We have a basset hound, Pappy, who's almost 13 years old. Merlin will hop over Pappy, who just lays there."

Merlin doesn't mind the vest, but he balks at Bearcat football and basketball jerseys. When he sees McKnight getting the jerseys out, Merlin runs into his crate and tries to hide in the corner, but he's OK once he's wearing them.

McKnight receives no stipend or time off from her counseling duties at school as Merlin's primary handler. In fact, because of staff reductions at the school district, her responsibilities have increased. As a result, she found herself momentarily lying on her office floor with Merlin during one particularly stressful day.

To raise money to purchase him, McKnight traveled around making presentations to local service organizations. Teachers donated money. Students were allowed to wear hats to school for a day if they donated $1 to the Merlin fund. Puppies were brought to a fundraiser that raised about $1,000 during halftime of a basketball game. Community members sent McKnight checks for $20.

School psychologist Bob Hatfield, a Merlin fan, pays for Merlin's monthly grooming expenses.

Knight has spent on Merlin about $800 of her own money for which she hasn't yet been reimbursed.

"I am here for the kids," she said. "I treat the kids here like my own kids. When I talk about 'my kids,' parents will ask me who I am talking about. I do whatever I can to help out. When I see the stress kids go through, Merlin is something our school needs."

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Source: The (Muncie) Star Press

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Information from: The Star Press, http://www.thestarpress.com