Story at a glance
- Research shows that spending time with a dog reduces stress.
- In many cases, children or adults are able to open up about traumatic experiences while in the presence of a dog.
- More than 200 dogs now work in courtrooms across the country, though they are still being met with some resistance.
The Monarch Children’s Justice and Advocacy Center is Astro’s turf. No one walks through the door without being met with a tail-wagging hello. But, it’s the 12- to 13-year-old girls — the clinic’s most reluctant visitors — to which the retriever/labrador mix is most drawn.
“These clients are at a very vulnerable age, and they do not want to talk about why they are here,” says Tambra Donohue, executive director of the Olympia, Wash., center.
There are many reasons why those children are there — and none of them pleasant.
The children who go through the center must recount experiences of abuse or retell crimes they witnessed. It’s difficult for many children to speak at all — especially these young girls teetering on the edge of adolescence.
Astro seems to get it, though. As a trained facility dog, he senses the stress. The more of it a client feels, the more attached to that client Astro becomes. He snuggles up to children, lying on their legs or leaning against them on the couch.
Inevitably, the child will pet Astro and everyone begins to feel a little better. Then, the child victims start talking.
They say things that they may never have said without Astro’s gentle reassurance. He even accompanies children to court if necessary.
“Bringing in Astro has been one of the most powerful, best things we’ve done here,” Donohue says. “In general, it does improve the children’s ability to share and leads to better justice. Kids have told me that they couldn’t have talked without the help of Astro.”
Astro’s calming effect is no surprise, Donohue says.
“There is a lot of research that suggests that dogs increase the oxytocin produced in the brain and reduce the cortisol,” she says. “You can see that in the faces of the children. This process is anxiety-provoking, but Astro brings an immediate flood of happiness and hope to these children.”
Canine courtroom companions
There are now 234 courtroom dogs in the country, and it all started with Jeeter. Jeeter was a service dog for Ellen O’Neill-Stephens’s son Sean, who has cerebral palsy. One day, while Sean was with another caregiver, O’Neill-Stephens brought Jeeter to work. A former senior deputy prosecutor in the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in Seattle, O’Neill-Stephens worked in the juvenile drug court as a prosecutor.
“I have seen horrible things,” she says. “At the time, I had just done a death penalty case. It was awful to see the anguish of parents, mentally ill people and hopeless lives.”
O’Neill-Stephens brought Jeeter to work once a week, and soon he became the unofficial mascot. O’Neill-Stephens saw how Jeeter’s unconditional love put participants at ease. Soon, attorneys were asking for Jeeter to sit with children in court who were having trouble testifying about abuse.
One case, in particular, stands out to O’Neill-Stephens. Twin 7-year-old girls were afraid to testify about abuse inflicted on them by their father. Jeeter sat with them through the ordeal. He laid his head on their laps as the girls took turns on the stand. As they petted him, they were able to divulge the truth.
After that, O’Neill-Stephens knew the court needed its own facility dog, and it was in 2004 when Ellie joined the team. She was the first dog placed in a court setting in the United States by Canine Companions for Independence.
O’Neill-Stephens retired in 2011 to focus on advancing the cause of the organization she founded, Courthouse Dogs Foundation. As of November 2019, there are 40 courthouse facility dogs working in 40 states, but not all dogs are in courtrooms all the time. Some, like Astro, work in support centers and occasionally accompany children to other sites when needed.
Not all dogs make the courtroom cut
Duo Dogs, a non-profit in St. Louis, is one of the facility and service dog training centers that contribute canines to the courtroom. Originally Duo just trained dogs to help with mobility and hearing. It expanded into courtroom facility dogs in 2009 when it placed its first dog into the legal system. Since then, 20 of the nonprofit’s 35 trained facility dogs are in the legal and advocacy system.
Duo — which trains only labrador and golden retrievers — does most of its own breeding and relies on volunteers to help with the puppies 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The volunteers foster socialization and instill core training. Then, the dogs are sent off for about 18 months to prison partners where vetted inmates further develop the dogs’ skills.
When the dogs return to Duo at about age 18 months, they go through another four to six weeks of training, where they learn 50 different skill sets that transfer to 200 tasks.
Then, their personality is evaluated, which decides their ultimate destination.
“A more energetic dog may be a good hearing dog,” said Beth Biondo, Duo Dogs’ director of operations. “Others like to lay around a lot and they make good facility dogs, which are the ones that end up working with children’s advocacy centers.”
About 85 percent of the dogs that go through the program become service or facility dogs, but all hope is not lost for those other 15 percent. There is a long wait list of eager adopters waiting for the washouts.
“If this isn’t something that dogs seem to want to do, they get to move into just being someone’s pet,” Biondo said.
Thanks to donations, the work of volunteers and partnerships with prisons where training also takes place, recipients only pay a nominal application and supply fees for the dogs.
Changing the system
While courtroom dogs programs are growing in popularity, there is still some pushback in the legal community.
A bill called Dogs As Witness Guardians was introduced by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in April 2019 that would allow certified facility dogs to be present in criminal federal court proceedings, and for other purposes.
“We are trying to change the legal system,” O’Neill-Stephens said. “We are addressing the process now because the old idea of cross-examining people in a harsh manor is inconsistent with the truth. When someone is stressed out, they are unable to talk. It’s a physiological action. The facility dog undoes some of that trauma.
Donohue, Astro’s handler, agrees.
“I see the dogs as immediate intervention to the trauma,” she said. “It interrupts some of the stress pathways.”
O’Neill-Stephens cites the Center for Disease Control’s November 2019 report that says a proportion of adult health problems can be attributed to adverse childhood experiences.
If facility dogs can help mitigate some of those traumas, they should be allowed to do so, she said.
“We need to address this,” O’Neill-Stephens says. “We get resistance from judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys because it’s not the way it’s been done before. But these dogs lower cortisol levels and increase oxytocin. The mere presence of the dog gives the kids a positive memory.”
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