The Clear Lake Community School District’s Education Board approved fourth-grade teacher Michael Ross purchasing a therapy dog for district use at their November meeting. Ross received one-on-one training with Otley, a small black lab, in January before bringing her home. Otley spent several weeks getting acquainted with her new family and getting familiar with Clear Lake before being brought into the school.
“Mr. Ross has brought a phenomenal presence to Clear Creek with the addition of Otley. Otley’s presence has calmed anxieties and helped to reorient struggling students in a way that has to be seen to be believed and understood. Her presence has spread positivity, peace, and joy to students and staff alike,” said Principal Brandon Borseth. “We are able to educate students more effectively and more meaningfully thanks to Mr. Ross and Otley.”
This isn’t the first time Michael and his family, wife, Amanda, and children, Bennett and Addy, have worked with dogs. They had trained their first dog, Yadi, just to be a house pet. “But he was so good and so calm with kids that Michael would bring him in, as like a reading reward, [when he taught first grade] in Webster City,” Amanda said. The couple had thought about getting Yadi professionally trained, but there was no place near them that could do that.
Then they heard about an international program through CARES, Inc. that trained service dogs and had placed over 1,400 dogs across 41 states, which includes many school therapy dogs in Iowa. “We’d signed up to get her (Otley) three years ago…and said let’s give it a shot. We knew the benefits of how amazing a dog would be in the classroom and that was cool,” Michael said.
The time frame between placing your order and picking up your dog is typically about two years, but with COVID the training process got backed up a year.
The Ross family moved to Clear Lake in 2022 and Michael and Amanda, a teacher at the high school, are in their second year with the Clear Lake School District. In August 2023, Michael said he got the call telling him his dog was ready to pick up in January. That is when he and Borseth, who was fully supportive of the idea, started the process of getting approval from the administration.
Michael said it’s been wonderful watching the kids perk up and see their smiles when they see Otley in the halls each morning. Then he relayed the stories of a student who told him they were all stressed out until Otley came over and laid her head down on his foot and of a parent who told him that their child couldn’t wait to return to school after spring break because they just wanted to see Otley. He also mentioned the amazing effects Otley was having on some of their special education students.
“That’s the type of stuff I want to make sure we’re trying to get to and we’re reaching as many kids as possible. I think there’s so many benefits to this,” Michael said.
For now, Otley needs to be with Michael, her handler, at all times, but the plan is to get one of the school counselors trained so Otley can go into other classrooms and also visit the Middle and High Schools.
