Therapy dogs visit Howell Road School in Valley Stream

Students in Nancy Faccio’s class at Howell Road School were recently visited by a pair of therapy dogs. Mowgli, a 105-pound, 5-year-old goldendoodle, was accompanied by her owner, Madeline Polen. In addition, Casey Dia, a nine-pound, 9-year-old chihuahua, came with her owner Lynn Eckers.

Both dogs are registered through the Delta Society and work in Bide-A-Wee’s Volunteer Pet Therapy

program, based in Wantagh. Polen and Mowgli make weekly visits to English as a Second Language students at Howell as part of Bide-a-Wee’s “Reading to Dogs” program.

Prior to the visit, children learned about how to read non-fiction books, including about therapy dogs.

With visiting Faccio’s class, Polen and Eckers explained the required training, care and job of

therapy dogs. The students even got to brush the dogs, pet them, try out a few commands and reward them with treats.