Dogs of Lincoln Academy celebrates seventh year – Enid News & Eagle

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Updated: February 1, 2023 @ 12:19 am
Students from Lincoln Academy are working with Allen, one of the Dogs of Lincoln. Allen suffers from high anxiety and is learning to socially adapt as the students and teachers help him find his forever home. The Humane Society coordinates with Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences and Lincoln High School, and offers a chance for students to learn responsibility and awareness.
Jacob Hasbrouck, 17, sits with MJ, one of the Dogs of Lincoln. He loves having the dogs around. “It makes you not have a bad day,” Hasbrouck said. The Humane Society coordinates with Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences and Lincoln High School to help train the dogs to become socially adaptable and have a chance to find their forever homes.
Educator Aaron Frisby from Lincoln Academy coaches Dodge to jump through a hoop while students look on.
Deanna Hornbeck, 17, works with Dodge from the Dogs of Lincoln program at Lincoln Academy. (Jessica Marshall / Stillwater News Press / CNHI LLC)
Lalia Nundu, 18, soothes MJ, one of the Dogs of Lincoln. Nundu enjoys working with the dogs throughout the week and plans to become a veterinarian someday.
Kyron Bush and Ghost Taylor (from left) pet Hopper, one of the Dogs of Lincoln. The Humane Society coordinates with Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences and Lincoln High School to train dogs to be socially adaptable and have a better chance of finding loving homes.

Students from Lincoln Academy are working with Allen, one of the Dogs of Lincoln. Allen suffers from high anxiety and is learning to socially adapt as the students and teachers help him find his forever home. The Humane Society coordinates with Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences and Lincoln High School, and offers a chance for students to learn responsibility and awareness.
Jacob Hasbrouck, 17, sits with MJ, one of the Dogs of Lincoln. He loves having the dogs around. “It makes you not have a bad day,” Hasbrouck said. The Humane Society coordinates with Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences and Lincoln High School to help train the dogs to become socially adaptable and have a chance to find their forever homes.
Educator Aaron Frisby from Lincoln Academy coaches Dodge to jump through a hoop while students look on.
Deanna Hornbeck, 17, works with Dodge from the Dogs of Lincoln program at Lincoln Academy. (Jessica Marshall / Stillwater News Press / CNHI LLC)
Lalia Nundu, 18, soothes MJ, one of the Dogs of Lincoln. Nundu enjoys working with the dogs throughout the week and plans to become a veterinarian someday.
Kyron Bush and Ghost Taylor (from left) pet Hopper, one of the Dogs of Lincoln. The Humane Society coordinates with Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences and Lincoln High School to train dogs to be socially adaptable and have a better chance of finding loving homes.
STILLWATER, Okla. — Lalia Nundu sat on the floor next to MJ, a new pup from Humane Society of Stillwater, and soothed him while his eyes were closed.
MJ is a part of a program from the Dogs of Lincoln Academy — a collaboration between Lincoln Academy, the Humane Society and Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences students.
The Dogs of Lincoln is a program that helps dogs from the Humane Society adapt socially and have higher chances of being adopted into loving homes. Four dogs — Hooper, Dodge, Allen and MJ — are enrolled in the program.
“The main thing is we want to get them to socially interact with humans because the ultimate goal is (for) them to find their forever home,” Lincoln Academy Principal Trent Swanson said.
The program is in its seventh year, and in that time, students have trained hundreds of dogs and helped them get adopted.
“I feel like (the program) helps a lot of people,” Nundu said. “As soon as you walk in, you just have a big smile on your face because those dogs greet you with so much love.”
Nundu, a senior at Lincoln Academy, plans to graduate in May, join the Navy and then pursue veterinary school. She and her friend, Karma Quillin, a junior, helped promote the program through Facebook and Instagram.
“We put up flyers and posters for people to add it on Instagram, and it really helped,” Nundu said. “I feel like (the program) should be everywhere. It helps the dogs get adopted so they’re not just sitting in the shelter.”
Jacob Hasbrouck, 17, said he likes having the dogs around.
“(They) make you not have a bad day,” Hasbrouck said.
Nundu said Hopper, a mountain cur mix, was her favorite.
“He’s super hyper and exciting,” Nundu said.
She said Allen’s anxiety was the worst she had seen in one of the dogs in the program.
“It’s so sad,” she said. “I just want to hold him.”
The program halted in 2020, but last fall, Humane Society Director Jackie Ross-Guerrero and Lincoln High School Principal Trent Swanson decided it was time to restart it. So far, 16 dogs have been adopted this school year.
Originally, every teacher had a dog in the classroom, but sometimes that made things difficult in the classroom, science educator Kris Fowler said. Now teachers have the option of signing up to care for a dog every day.
Fowler heads the program and often takes the dogs with health conditions so that her students can research and learn more about how to help the dogs.
Her classroom was caring for Allen, a dog dealing with high anxiety from Perkins Animal Shelter.
“The thought is that it will help students increase their attendance and help the dogs get more adaptable behaviors,” Fowler said. “Some students are more excited or more interested in the dogs than others, but it helps a lot of students with their anxiety.”
“I wish I could help him,” Fowler said.
Students from the OSU Center for Veterinary Health Sciences come each Tuesday to teach the students about how to train and care for the dogs.
The students use a training checklist to work with the dogs. At the end of the training period, the students provide a report card for the dog, saying what they taught him or her.
OSU veterinary students come to judge the dogs and hold a graduation ceremony. The students throw a pizza or ice cream party for the dogs who show best improvement or best in class, Ross-Guerrero said.
“We used to do a ceremony in the front yard, but it gets all the dogs wound up,” Swanson said. “So the judges go around to the individual classrooms.”
Now in their third round of training for the school year, the dogs are coming to the school more often, Ross-Guerrero said.
“Adoption rates are high, about every two weeks,” Ross-Guerrero said.
Having the dogs at school brings awareness about shelters for the students, English educator Shandi Treat said.
“I think when they are ready to have their own animals, they will think ‘shelter,’” Treat said. “We’re raising this generation to understand the importance of adoption.”
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Marshall writes for the Stillwater News Press, a CNHI LLC publication.

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