Ruth & Rae
by Sara Raynor
Ruth “Alysa” Dixon is a member of our FEATT community for a different reason. She, with her Irish Setter, Rae (short for Sharaya), is working on her Masters in Special Education. Her research focuses on the use of animals, specifically dogs, in the educational setting. She hopes one day that dogs will assist students in public schools with a variety of social, emotional and behavioral learning in the educational environment. As of yet, there are barely any being used or even allowed in Oregon public schools.
As a girl, Ruth, has always loved dogs and has been especially drawn to Irish Setters because of their innate intelligence and capability to empathize with humans. As a child, her family had several breeds of dogs, but one day her mom surprised her with an amazing Irish Setter who turned out to be not just a great family dog, but a very intuitive nanny dog. She eventually went to be a house dog for the boys dormitory on the Navajo Reservation because Ruth’s parents worked as the house parents for the Mission.
Ruth has also wanted to be a teacher since she was a little girl and it took time for her vision to realize itself because she ultimately found she wanted to combine her love of teaching with her love of dogs. Right now, even with the ADA, there are many barriers to allowing even well-trained service dogs in schools, and Ruth has realized that one of her challenges will be needing to advocate for how beneficial animals could be in the learning environment. One of the hurdles is communicating to school boards how the benefits outweigh their potential risks.
Since working on her Masters Degree, Ruth has had to move her research from the school setting to outside the school setting just because of policies that restrict her from using a dog in the classroom. Thinking outside the box, she has found ways to work one on one with families either with a trained therapy dog, or with tips on training the family dog, or even just evaluating a family’s situation to see if a therapy dog would fit their situation.
Rae is Ruth’s two year old Irish Setter that she acquired from a specialized breeder in Reedsport called Muffet Farms. They maintain traditional Irish Setter lineage and many of their dogs are currently doing full time therapy work with psychologists and doctors. Rae was chosen specifically to be a good candidate for therapy work and she may also have to take on a role as ambassador to pave the road for the inclusion of canines in public education.
Ruth says that Rae really picked her. She had her eye on Rae just from the puppy pictures, but went to choose a puppy out of the litter with an open mind. While all of the other puppies were playing around, Rae came up to Ruth and just stared up at her. They had an immediate connection, and it was meant to be. Though subtle, making eye contact is one of the many possible signals that dogs can use to alert a “handler” (a.k.a. Human mom). An alert is a way to communicate from dog to handler. A relationship between human and animal is necessary to have a two-way communication and it is very different from old-school “obedience training”.
So far there hasn’t been a lot of research in the classroom. Some anecdotal stories about intuitive dogs learning to alert their owners about different medical or psychological needs. When the dogs learn they can communicate, and their message is received, they then continue to alert. Sometimes they even alert outside of the handler relationship, or learn to prioritize on their own, and more importantly to think outside the box when necessary. Ruth works with a friend who has a search and rescue dog. This dog has job-related alerts that he used to tell his handler that she was going to be getting a migraine. Now she can preemptively avoid a migraine if she takes her medicine when the dog alerts her instead of waiting until she feels the pain.
Ruth says experiential stories are common and that inspires her to do her own research. While an emotional support or service dog works with one person, a therapy dog is taught to work with many different people alongside a handler. Interventions can be strategic and focused or more broad and general. There is also what can be referred to as a “facility dog”, one that is trained to work at a specific place. They are usually more diversified in their skillset. There are organizations that train and pair up the dogs with the right facilities, these can cost in the several thousands of dollars ($25K-$30K)! A cost way out of reach for many public schools. Finding grants is possible but so is training your own.
The human dog bond has been growing for thousands of generations. Ruth is working on growing her community of trainers in Douglas County, and sharing with people interested in what dogs can do for their families. Her Facebook group, Umpqua Valley Therapy Dogs welcomes all who are interested in this topic. Right now she is working on a project for her Masters, but her research will be ongoing. She loves to work one-on-one with families and would like to work with as many families as possible to further her knowledge and apply it to the vision she has to include therapy dogs in the classroom for the benefit of all students.