Panda the corgidor takes on Samo

Samo has gained a new faithful staff member, and she is working ’round the clock to help students. Unlike the rest of the faculty, she walks on all fours and lives in English teacher Andrea Shore’s classroom, L101. Her name is Panda, and she is a seven-month-old corgidor.Shore first had the idea to rescue a dog and train it to become a therapy animal in her first year of teaching at Samo in 2015, but the plan didn’t materialize until this year when she adopted Panda. Dogs need to “work” in a public facility for 100 days before they are eligible to be members of the therapy dog program of The American Kennel Club, and Panda is serving her hours at Samo.Before Panda was allowed to enter the school, Shore had to take many precautions to make sure she was following district policies.“You have to get every parent of every student in the class who would be affected…to say it’s ‘okay’ and provide notification to the parents, and your house principal and school principal needs to say it’s okay,” Shore said.After she was given authorization from administration and students, Panda was brought in and given a little pen in the front of the classroom around the week of finals last semester. Shore feels like the timing really elevated the love for Panda.“The first time I brought her was around finals, and so it was really nice to see not just my students, but other students saying ‘this just made my day’ or ‘I’m so much calmer after petting or seeing her.’ So that’s been really nice, just being able to offer some students a reprieve from finals and hard-work,” Shore said.Panda has already been a source of comfort for many students, but Shore hopes that Panda’s work will reach beyond the classroom. Once she visits the school for 100 days, there is a special test that is required for Panda to pass to become a certified therapy dog. Shore explained that for the test, Panda needs to show that she would be helpful.“A professional is going to do a test where they bring by a person in a wheelchair to make sure they don’t react; they have someone walk by in crutches; they will drop a bedpan; kind of normal stuff that would happen in a hospital. She also needs to know basic [expressions] like ‘Leave it, Stay, Come,’ that kind of stuff,’” Shore said.Panda still has a long way to go before earning the coveted title of therapy dog, but if and when she does, she will be able to work in a hospital and help patients daily.“The group that I’m thinking [about] is Pet Partners or Love on Leashes, and I think you give them your dog and they bring the dog to the hospital. You still get to keep the dog,” Shore said.For just a seven-month-old corgidor, Panda has big hopes and dreams. She is taking advantage of every day to spread the love around Samo on her journey to help others.