I love my job. There are many reasons I love my job, but the highlight of my week has been periodic texts with photos of puppies from the Brandon School District Superintendent Carly Stone. In fact, almost every conversation I’ve had with Stone over the last few months has ended up being about dogs and puppies.
In the 24-25 school year, Brandon will be getting two Social Emotional Learning (SEL) dogs for the district, and two more in 2025-2026. The dogs are trained through Campus K9s, a non-profit organization that raises and trains SEL dogs specifically for school districts to promote the well being of students, staff and the community.
“Someone I worked with in Waterford is on the Board of Directors at Campus K9s,” said Stone. “I was already aware of several districts around us that were using the program.”
In the Brandon strategic planning survey, parents and community members ranked student mental health as the number one priority in the next 10 years. Due to a lot of research about pets being able to help relieve anxiety and to help people stay calm, Stone thought that SEL dogs would be a perfect fit for the district. She reached out to co-founder and executive director Kristy Green and got more information on the training program, as well as the dogs.
The dogs are bred intentionally from a calm, working lineage, and they undergo 14-16 months of training before being placed in a host family in their home district.
“There’s training for students, staff, handlers and host families,” said Stone. “It’s not just sticking a dog in the school.”
Phoebe, a short-haired yellow Labrador Retriever, will be assigned to Brandon Middle School. Birdie, a long-haired yellow Labrador Retriever, will be assigned to Harvey-Swanson Elementary.
“Birdie is very alert, highly intelligent,” said Stone. “She really loves being in the middle of it all. She’s very social.”
Phoebe, Stone said, is also very intelligent, but more laid back, making her more suited to older students.
At the elementary level, Birdie will be part of the mental health team. She will be part of counseling groups for children, accessible for children who may be experiencing some discomfort, and she will attend reading groups.
“She’ll be around primarily to support their joy in the day,” said Stone. “By having a dog in the building each day, it provides them the predictability to have a good day.”
Phoebe will be working with the mental health team at the middle school, mainly social workers. She may provide support in therapeutic classrooms. Each of the administrators are given freedom to use the dog as they see fit, Stone said, as the principals know where the needs are in their buildings.
The dogs for Oakwood and BHS have already been born, but have yet to be assigned. Currently they are only a few months old and are cuter than almost any dog I’ve ever seen (except my own, but as their mother, I’m biased.)
“I’m hoping to see less anxiety for the school,” said Stone. “Hoping to see more connection, to help with encouragement, and to provide an overall sense of calm and be part of the overall community. They’ll be at sporting events, they will be Blackhawks. It’s not only for students, it’s for staff too. It’s so uplifting and it will create a sense of calm.”
The dogs will also be in addition to other dogs that are part of the district, including Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Comfort K9 officer Woody, and therapy dogs Sky and Luna, who visit around once a week.
“We still love and appreciate Sky and Luna, you can never have enough dogs,” she said. “We won’t abandon any therapy dog support the district receives. And Woody is fantastic, he’s not going away, but he’s a sheriff resource and there’s only one of him. We’re looking for that consistency and stability.”
This summer, Birdie and Phoebe are training at Michigan State University in their Books and Badges program, which connects officers with elementary students to encourage literacy. In the fall they will be working on training in Brandon Schools with trainers and mentor dogs from Campus K9s.
“Campus K9s can feel the sense of community this district has,” said Stone. “It’s a good district for the dogs to thrive. We feel so lucky to get to be part of it, and we’re really thankful for the support from the community.”
I’m looking forward to meeting all of these dogs, as I’m sure many community members are. For more information, or to donate towards them, visit brandonschools.org.