Gaby+J’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2016

=School Is Ruff. Let's Bring Our Dogs.=

Happiness is a warm puppy.

Charles Schulz wrote a book with this title, and if you know me at all, you know that I agree with him.

Dogs have the ability to make their owners feel calm, secure, loved, happy, and appreciated. Their love is unconditional. They do not judge us, nor overwhelm us with expectations, they simply accept us for who we are.

When you walk in the door after you’ve had an awesome day, immediately at your feet is your faithful companion; tail wagging, loving eyes staring up at you, so happy to see your face.

When you walk in the door after just a terrible day, immediately at your feet is your faithful companion; tail wagging, loving eyes staring up at you, so happy to see your face.

I have two dogs; Henry and Lily. Henry is a german shepard/border collie mix. He is the older, wiser brother. Lily is a fluffy white terrier mix-the bratty little sister. Both are rescue dogs-we rescued them, and they rescued us. And they make my life happy.

School is a place full of pressure; pressure to do well, to live up to the expectations of our teachers, parents, and ourselves; it’s a place of stress; stress when the workload is super demanding, or having to balance school with family life and other commitments like sports, or in my case, ballet. It’s a place where we are judged constantly, whether it is overt or not; by how we dress, by how we look, or whether our essay is worthy of an A. And we are labeled: smart, loud, cool, short, overweight, geeky, athletic, etc. It can be a tough place.

But I have a solution: let’s bring our dogs to school! They would benefit us in so many ways. If my dogs were here right now, maybe I wouldn’t feel so nervous up here in front of you all. Maybe you’d even enjoy my speech more in their presence!

Obviously, there would need to be some qualifications to fulfill and rules to follow for the dogs that are allowed on campus. I’ve made a short list: > > > > > >
 * 1)  All the dogs would need to pass obedience school
 * 1)  They must spayed or neutered… we don’t want any hanky panky going on!
 * 1)  The pups need to be clean and have no fleas
 * 1)  Dogs need to be up to date with their vaccinations
 * 1)  They must always on a leash, and most importantly,
 * 1)  The dogs must be cute. (This last requirement won’t be very difficult because all dogs are adorable as far as I’m concerned)

There would need to be rules about doody duty too! We would need to have little bags on hand for when the dogs do their business so that we can easily and responsibly keep the campus clean.

Dogs truly are man’s best friend. Having the support of our dogs, someone always on our side, will act almost as a security blanket at school. Sometimes dogs can make us feel more safe or comfortable than people can in certain situations. You can also be assured that you will never be judged by your dog.

Having our dogs at school with us would not only help us make new friends, but give our dogs the chance to make dog friends as well!

It would maybe even push us to talk to people we would have never talked to before. Maybe they can even help you get a date to the prom!

Dogs can also be super helpful with anxiety and stress. I saw a dragon talk about dogs and the presenter played a video made by Pedigree, and it showed an experiment where they measured the heart rates of the dogs and their owners both together and apart. When they were apart, they had high heart rates and showed signs of uneasiness. When the dogs were brought in, both the dog’s and the owner’s heart rates gradually went down and even started to sync up. Just imagine having your dog by your side when you’re taking a really hard test. Because their presence can actually calm you down, your chances of performing well on the test are even better. I struggle with test anxiety and I know having Henry by my side would help me.

Catherine Richetti, a social worker for schools in Guilderland, NY, says that “social service dogs are cost effective and emotionally effective” in a school setting. Richetti placed a trained social service dog, named Miss Siggy, into a classroom, and she helped students succeed who had formerly been too nervous to even try to take a test. Richetti also talked about research conducted in the Netherlands that showed that students who had pet a dog for 10 to 15 minutes before an exam, received higher test scores.

At my sister’s college, before each finals period, they have what they call “pause for paws” which is an event where faculty members and members of the town bring their dogs to campus. The students get to interact with the dogs-pet them and play with them in order to take help take away some of the stress and pressures of finals week. And it works! The students love it.. And so do the dogs!

I think dogs could also participate in our classes. Think of the possibilities! They could model in art or pose for photography! They could demonstrate in physiology or physics! They could even help the office staff by delivering notes and call slips.

Dogs can also join in at PE. I don’t know about you, but I think running around with our dogs would make PE way more fun! This would also get students to be more active; having dogs to run around and play with would definitely make exercise fun!

Another unique and innate ability dogs have is that they can sense danger. This could become very helpful if anything bad were to happen to us at school. Their ability to suspect that something isn’t right, could lead to the prevention of bad things from happening. Dogs have an amazing ability to detect danger of intruders, so having them at school with us would make the school a very safe place to be. Just imagine having a thousand guard dogs with us all the time. I think that would make any possible intruder want to run away quickly!

I believe that having the ability to bring our dogs to school with us would make school a more positive and enjoyable environment for the students and staff, and I want to grow old in an America where this idea is implemented in schools all across the country.