At Trottier, we have a female therapy/service dog named Riley. She is five years old, was born in August 2019, and is an English Cream Golden Retriever. Riley came from a service dog center in Walpole, MA called GOFI (Golden Opportunities For Independence). They are an organization that provides service dogs to people who are in  need of them. Also, they breed dogs and provide them to people who want normal pets. 

Mrs. Stephanie Palmer’s husband and their daughter got Riley when they went to a community event and saw the GOFI table. The whole family volunteered at GOFI. They watched the puppies, helped out, and ended up wanting one. 

The process of training Riley was a long and rigorous process. Mrs. Palmer’s daughter likes to train dogs, so she trained Riley first. Then, since Riley was going to spend a lot of time with Mrs. Palmer at school, Mrs. Palmer had to train Riley, too, so she had double training. This is the first year that Riley has come in. Mrs. Palmer is also not opposed to bringing Riley in on special events in school, but no chance to let it happen has occurred. Riley has never really acted out during service, she is usually pretty calm.  

Riley works in the calm classroom and helps people to get rid of stress. She does this every Friday, when she comes in. Mrs. Palmer hopes that Riley will stay in Trottier to continue helping.