Clark County Sheriff's Department Welcomes New Therapy Dog

Wednesday, December 14th, 2022 -- 1:00 PM

The Clark County Sheriff’s Department is welcoming their new therapy dog.

The pup’s name is Haven. Haven’s handler, Deputy McDonald, said Haven, a labradoodle, was donated to the Sheriff’s Office by Blueberry Cottage Labradoodles. Although just a pup now, Haven will get to be about 16-20 inches tall or knee high.

Labradoodles make good therapy dogs as they are usually friendly, playful, loyal, and very intelligent. The Clark County Sheriff’s Department got Haven to help with Law Enforcement mental health.

Haven is there to help people feel safe and feel as comfortable as possible to share what is going on or what happened to them. Her purpose, in Deputy McDonald’s eyes, is to help people escape from whatever is bothering them and to help them feel a slight relief from what is going on/bothering them.

Haven is supposed to kind of be a “distraction” from whatever is happening/happened to help ease people into talking about the situation or to calm them down from what has happened. Haven will also be used in the schools for various activities and she will be used in time of need.

She will be able to help assist with interview with domestic violence, people who have been sexually assaulted, and other mental health issues to help keep people calm and relaxed.

Right now, Haven and Deputy McDonald are doing a lot of online training through the Baxter and Bella online courses. Eventually Haven will go and do the Alliance of Therapy Dog Certification test so that she is a certified therapy dog.

Deputy McDonald said she has always had this desire to have therapy animals. It started in high school. She was looking up how to get certified for Equine Therapy which is when you use a horse to help people who struggle after having a stroke, any serious accidents, or mental health issues.

A lot of animals can be trained and certified to be a therapy animal to help with those who are struggling with mental illness, PTSD, and many other things. When she saw the email from the Sheriff about getting a therapy dog, she jumped on the chance to help participate in any way with getting the therapy dog.

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