PAWZitivity dogs make their way onto Menlo Park school campuses

The Menlo Park City School District’s social and emotion learning (SEL) dog program, supported by the Menlo Park-Atherton Education Foundation, is beginning to take shape. As of now, five of the six new PAWZitivity dogs have moved from Michigan to Menlo Park and some are even beginning to come to school. Pictured above from left to right are Duke, Millie, Cali, Sunny, and Patches.

The main priority right now is for hosts and dogs to acclimate to each other, build trust, and for the dogs to get comfortable in their new homes. The pups are very highly trained but still barely a year old! Throughout the rest of this school year, the dogs will have limited responsibilities on campus with a small group of handlers. Full implementation of the program will begin in the fall.

Duke supports district-wide as a member of the Student Services team. Millie, Cali, and Sunny are sisters and support Encinal, Oak Knoll, and Laurel Upper Campus respectively. These girls just turned one year old on April 12! Patches works at Hillview with his canine colleague, Eclair, who piloted the program over the past two years. Fiona for Laurel Lower Campus is a bit younger and still in training, and she will come in a few weeks.