Luca’s Now an Officially Licensed Therapy Dog at Blue Hills Regional Technical School

Blue Hills Regional Technical School’s Luca is now a fully licensed therapy dog. (Photo Courtesy Blue Hills Regional Technical School)

CANTON — Golden Labradoodle Luca’s now fully licensed, not to drive but to provide comfort to the students enrolled at Blue Hills Regional Technical School.

Superintendent-Director Jill Rossetti is proud to announce that Luca is now a fully licensed therapy dog, after passing his therapy dog test at a memory care unit on Saturday, June 7.

Therapy Dogs United (TDU) provides a structured and rigorous certification process for therapy dogs and their handlers to ensure safety, professionalism, and effectiveness in educational and public settings.

Dogs like Luca must first pass the American Kennel Club’s (AKC) Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test, demonstrating strong obedience skills. Luca is now listed on the TDU website, under Massachusetts, as one of the nation’s newest fully trained and certified therapy dogs.

Therapy dogs are trained to provide affection, comfort, and support in various settings, including schools, hospitals, assisted living facilities, memory care facilities, libraries, preschools, hospice care, and during grief counseling or disaster relief efforts.

Student interaction with Luca at Blue Hills is entirely voluntary.

Extensive training and certification are required to ensure that dogs have the temperament and skills needed for this important role. Luca had previously completed the Puppy Star, Pre-Canine Good Citizen (Pre-CGC) and the AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) courses. Adequate training helps to ensure that a dog won’t be startled by loud noises, and will resist the urge to eat dropped items and remain calm around strangers.

Superintendent-Director Rossetti, Luca’s owner and handler, worked with Unique Souls Canine Training to provide Luca with the training necessary to become a comfort dog. Gigi and Mark Sanita, the husband-and-wife team behind Unique Souls Canine Training in Plainville, are both professional dog trainers.

“This accomplishment reflects a high standard of care and professionalism that aligns with Blue Hills’ commitment to a safe, supportive and engaging environment for all staff and students,” said Superintendent-Director Rossetti. “We started with puppy star class, pre-canine good citizen, canine good citizen, urban canine good citizen, community good citizen, advanced canine good citizen and therapy dog training. It’s been a year and a half of training and testing on Saturdays. Plus, visiting memory care units, assisted living facilities and school!”

Handlers must also meet TDU’s safety requirements, including passing a Child Abuse Background Check. In some cases, a criminal background check may also be required based on the facility being visited. To stay active, teams must complete at least six TDU-approved visits per year and submit monthly logs.

Comfort and therapy dogs have been found to significantly improve students’ social, emotional, vocational and academic needs, due to their extraordinary ability to sense human emotions by picking up subtle changes in scent when someone is nervous or fearful.

Having therapy dogs in schools provides many benefits, including:  

• Enhance memory, problem-solving skills, and executive functioning.
• Encourage children to take more risks in learning.
• Help students refocus on tasks and calm those who are upset.
• Lift spirits and lessen depression.
• Improve self-esteem and make people laugh.
• Increase interest in school activities.
• Provide comfort to students, victims, witnesses, and adults involved in critical or traumatic events.
• Lower blood pressure, reduce fatigue, and improve fine motor skills.
• Motivate daily exercise and improve health for those with physical and mental disabilities.
• Decrease feelings of isolation and increase communication.
• Calm and relax those in need, helping people overcome a fear of dogs.
• Improve social-emotional learning (SEL), cognitive processing, and reading skills, with studies showing a 12-30 percent increase in reading fluency.
• Relieve stress and anxiety, elevate mood, and boost serotonin and dopamine levels.
• Teach responsibility, compassion, and respect for living things.

Luca is Blue Hills’ second comfort dog. The school lost its first, Enzo, to an unexpected illness in 2023.

“Luca’s recent achievement will benefit students and staff alike at Blue Hills,” said Superintendent-Director Rossetti. “Luca’s primary mission will be to boost our school’s overall environment of wellbeing. Learning’s easier when students are comfortable and focused. I’m certain that Luca is looking forward to a fresh start to the upcoming new school year at Blue Hills Regional Technical School.”

###

The future’s so bright for Luca and the students at Blue Hills that sometimes, he needs to wear shades. (Photo Courtesy Blue Hills Regional Technical School)

Blue Hills Regional Technical School’s Luca is now a fully licensed therapy dog. (Photo Courtesy Blue Hills Regional Technical School)

Luca also loves long walks on the beach. (Photo Courtesy Blue Hills Regional Technical School)

Luca loves swimming, playing, cruising, and most of all, comforting. (Photo Courtesy Blue Hills Regional Technical School)