All about Steve!
Steve is a 2 year old Westie/Wheaten Terrier Mix. Playing ball is life's work for Steve as well as volunteering here at Lakeland! Steve was surrendered by his first person when he was just 5 months old being told he was “untrainable”; he set out to prove them wrong!
Ms. Howland adopted Steve and began his training. Steve excelled through his puppy classes and on to his intermediate and advanced class, where he learned to Shake, High Five, Roll over and many more fun things! From there Steve was accepted into a therapy dog program at Dog Training Elite where as a team with his handlers, Ms. Howland and Mrs. Grabow and his trainer Austin, he learned the ins and outs of being a therapy dog. On August 14, 2023 Steve and Ms. Howland tested their skills at the Therapy Dog/Handler test. Steve passed on his first try making Ms. Howland and Steve a Certified Therapy Dog Team!
Soon after Steve tested again with Mrs. Grabow and they passed on the first try making Mrs. Grabow a certified handler as well!
When he’s off duty Steve lives at home with Ms. Howland, his other human family members & and fur brother Ollie. Steve loves to go for bike rides and walks in addition to playing ball.
Therapy dogs rely on their social instincts and skills to offer socio-emotional, cognitive, and health benefits to the people they spend time with.
Therapy Dog at Lakeland
Mrs. Grabow is the school social worker at Lakeland. She has always wanted to have a therapy dog and in the past couple of years, with the help of donations from students, staff and parent groups, enough money was raised to get a dog trained to become a therapy dog.
Ms. Howland is our building office para-professional and the owner and care taker of Steve the therapy dog. She loves being in our building and enjoys working with the students and the staff here at Lakeland.
