MCLA Welcomes Maple The Comfort Dog – iBerkshires.com
The organization donated the poodle, bred to be hypo-allergenic. Berkshire Comfort Dogs train and groom the dog free of charge.
“A dog is donated from Berkshire poodles, which is $3500. Then the yearly average yearly cost of the dogs with vet bills, training and grooming is $2,000 a year,” Kohlenberger said.
Luckily, Hilltowns Veterinary Clinic vet Sharon M. Lynch donates her time. But with the growing popularity of the non-profit, Berkshire Comfort Dogs is reaching out to other veterinary clinics in the Berkshires to donate their services.
On May 31, the school announced that they were getting a comfort dog and requested that students, faculty, staff and alumni vote on her name. Options were Juno, Maisel, and Maple. Maple won by an overwhelming margin with over 100 people voting in favor of the name.
Finally, the litter was born and 8 weeks after the additional 63-day gestation period, Hantman was able to pick her up last week.
In the past, MCLA has held events that included animals to help reduce students’ stress including the student favorite Barn Babies. These types of events would receive a high number of participants before the pandemic. Hantman said MCLA is excited to be able to provide this new resource to its students.
“The [Student Activities Council] does barn babies each year, which is always a huge hit, as well. So I’m sure those kinds of events will happen,” Hantman said. “And we’re working on more volunteer opportunities through our office with the Berkshire Humane Society and things like that. So there’s been a student interest in that.”
For the next year, Maple will go through three training courses. She will undergo this training alongside her brothers and sisters from the litter.
“These dogs aren’t trained as high as service dogs, but they’re trained to much higher than emotional support animals and things like that,” Kohlenberger said.
Until she has completed her training, Hantman will be with her at events, during Maple period, and whenever students are interacting with her.
Following her training, students will be able to sign her out so they can interact with her without Hantman which will open her availability since students will not be restricted to his schedule.
Riello said that they have seen major support from faculty towards this new addition and feel that this will help students’ mental health especially after surviving a pandemic.
“There’s like one or two people who may not be dog people, but even they see the benefit of it for the students and the community and are on board,” Hantman added.
MCLA Senior and Student Government Association President Ian Crombie said that Maple’s presence on campus will also inform students suffering from mental health issues of the counseling and other resources that the school already offers.
“We have free therapy resources on campus, but I think a lot of students are a little afraid to take advantage of that, because they’re afraid of talking to someone about how they feel. So I think having the dog would get their foot in the door a little bit. To be able to feel comfortable to go to people,” Crombie said
Crombie also noted that he has felt more motivated to come into the office in the morning because he gets a chance to see her.
Maple’s impact on the campus has already been felt by the SGA students who are on campus this summer for orientation. SGA students got an early introduction to Maple Wednesday.
MCLA Junior Irving Mogene stepped outside of his comfort zone and interacted with Maple despite being afraid of her at first. After Maple was passed around to his peers, he requested to hold her and received introductions on how to safely do so. As he held Maple in his arms she slept and he started to warm up to her. Although he was hesitant at first to hold her when it came time to put her down he wanted a few extra seconds.
Mogene said that he believes Maple’s presence on campus will help people go outside their comfort zone because it encourages shy students who love dogs to go up to Maple and interact with their peers who also love Maple.
MCLA is not the only school welcoming these comfort dogs to the campus other organizations like the Pittsfield Police Department, Pittsfield Public Schools, Boys and Girls Club, and 15 other organizations have taken this leap as well.