Mental health maintenance at the College has a new face — and it’s a cute one. Harry, a two-year-old Havapoo, joined the CARE Team and the Office of Health Education as a certified therapy dog on Sept. 10.
Hiring Harry was no easy feat. “I’d been looking for a local certified therapy dog to invite to campus, but the timing didn’t work out with other local handlers of officially certified therapy dogs,” Laini Sporbert, director of CARE team outreach and health education, wrote in an email to the Record.
Harry replaces other therapy dogs who have departed the Berkshires. Veteran therapy dogs Sammy and Matchett, previous staples of the College’s mental health support offerings, have been unable to visit campus after their owners moved out of the area. Peer Health previously brought in a dog to support students, but the dog was not a certified therapy animal.
Harry’s certification qualified him for his new role at the College. “John [O’Keefe], Harry’s handler, a member of our Athletics [Department], contacted me when Harry was going through certification, and we worked together to bring him to campus weekly,” Sporbert wrote.
O’Keefe, who is the associate athletic director for budget and finance, has had Harry since he was a puppy. “He was bred in a puppy mill for sale as a high-end designer dog,” O’Keefe wrote in an email to the Record.
“Harry and his littermate were the runts,” he continued. “They both had heart murmurs and couldn’t be sold for big money, so they were abandoned with a rescue organization. He still sees his littermate Sabastian, who lives in eastern Massachusetts, about one or two times a year.”
Despite his humble beginnings, Harry has become a hot commodity in Paresky 212, also known as the Peer Health room. “Harry loves to meet people, which is why we got him involved in the therapy dog program,” O’Keefe wrote. “He’s available for small groups such as clubs, teams and organizations as his schedule permits. Harry’s not at College all the time so some advanced notice is normally necessary.”
When he’s not on duty, Harry reportedly loves to spend time in the Human Resources office. “When I have meetings he’ll go down there and hang out with numerous people,” O’Keefe wrote. “One day I went to pick him up and was told that the Director (Danielle Gonzalez, who admits she normally only likes big dogs but loves Harry) had taken him to a meeting.”
O’Keefe said Harry’s impact is apparent. “[In] the last few weeks that we’ve worked, you can see a difference in the mindset of the students that come into the room, especially the first-year students who are actively dealing with the stress of transitioning to college life,” O’Keefe wrote. “A lot of the students also miss their dogs and cats at home and seeing a dog lets them reconnect with a part of their life that’s been put on hold for now.”
Students interested in visiting Harry can stop by Paresky 212 between 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. every Wednesday.
