Courtesy of Homewood City Schools
Russell the Service Dog
Russell, a black lab, meets Shades Cahaba Elementary faculty and students on Jan. 7, 2019.
Shades Cahaba Elementary School is now the second Homewood school to be awarded a facility service dog.
On Jan. 8, Principal John Lowry announced to students and parents that Service Dogs Alabama had provided Russell, a black lab, to work in the school. Hall-Kent Elementary received a similar service dog, Maize, in November.
The two dogs will have a daily schedule of visits to classrooms and serve as a calming presence and as a learning tool. As facility service dogs, Maize and Russell can work with groups of students and one-on-one, such as in counseling or test situations.
Their work is different from traditional service dogs, which serve a single handler with a disability and do not work in group settings.
The facility service dogs live with the school principals and are family pets outside of school hours. The principals must agree to ongoing training and behavioral work as part of the conditions of receiving a dog from Service Dogs Alabama.
Lowry and a few members of Shades Cahaba faculty and students first met Russell on Monday, Jan. 7. He will officially start work on Jan. 22 and spend a few weeks getting introduced to the school before beginning a regular routine.
Learn more about the school facility dogs program at servicedogsalabama.com.