Courthouse dogs are a ‘game changer’ for traumatized children
The young girl climbed somberly into the witness box. With her accused abuser sitting mere feet away in this south Mississippi courtroom, she answered question after question in horrific detail about trauma she said she’d endured.
When the pint-sized brunette exited the courtroom, her guardian said she’d been worried about her testifying, in there all alone.
“I wasn’t alone,” the girl responded, pointing to the soulful-eyed black Lab at her feet. “I had Remi.”
Remi is among a growing cadre of canines on court duty in child protection and justice systems nationwide, helping comfort children in crisis. When kids have to go to court to face separation from their family, undergo forensic interviews about abuse they’ve endured or testify in a criminal case against someone who harmed them, in many states they do it with a dog like Remi by their side.
The presence of these companions significantly improves the children’s experience, professionals working with these therapy animals say, adding to a sense of calm and safety. The dogs also provide moments of joy and levity in hearings that can otherwise feel crushing — offering a nuzzle to cheer a child along, or showing off tricks during long waiting periods.
“It’s quite intimidating to go to the courtroom, they’re scared,” said Lacey Ambriz, who handles the facility dog Forest for the Texas Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program. “When they see a dog, their demeanor completely changes and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, can I pet him?’ They ask questions, so it redirects their attention from what’s going on with their families.”
As of last year, according to the Courthouse Dogs Foundation, hundreds of dogs now work in almost all U.S. states and in a handful of countries abroad.
Some brain science backs up the method. A 2018 study analyzed physical signs of stress among 51 children interviewed about sexual abuse at a Virginia child advocacy center. Participants who were aided by a specially trained dog had significantly lower blood pressure and heart rates, researchers found.
In turn, this calming effect helps children share more with interviewers and judges and improves their ability to participate fully in the family court cases that shape their lives.
“When they see a dog, their demeanor completely changes and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, can I pet him?’”
— Lacey Ambriz, dog handler for Texas Court-Appointed Special Advocates
Beyond the courtroom, the dogs assist in family visitations and at schools. For virtual hearings, dogs are brought to children’s homes, curling up on the couch with them as they sit through proceedings. Some help break the ice when children meet court-appointed advocates for the first time.
“We recognize that for some of our victims, human beings just can’t help them in the way they might need in that moment,” said Tambria DeCorse, who runs the victim services division at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The three dogs on her team, she said, offer a sense of calm steadiness, nonpartisan support and unconditional love.
The impact, she said, cannot be overstated: “It’s been a game changer for us.”
Borrowed service dog inspires change
While dogs have been used in therapeutic and service capacities for many decades, the use of trained facility dogs in courtrooms has been a growing practice since the early 2000s.
Ellen O’Neill-Stephens, an early champion of this work, founded the Courthouse Dogs Foundation. She is a longtime prosecutor in Seattle, Washington. O’Neill-Stephens was working in a youth drug court when one day, on a whim, she decided to bring her son’s service dog Jeeter along. It was an immediate success, not just with the youth in court, but the adults working there as well.
“They just fell all over him,” O’Neill-Stephens said.
Before long, news of Jeeter’s weekly visits made its way to lawyers working in family court, and they asked O’Neill-Stephens if the dog could help them with two young girls who were struggling to testify. Demand for Jeeter’s help continued to grow, and O’Neill-Stephens quickly realized the court needed a dog of its own.
“We recognize that for some of our victims, human beings just can’t help them in the way they might need in that moment.”
— Tambria DeCorse, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office
It took some convincing to get an assistance dog organization to place an animal in a courthouse, O’Neill-Stephens said. Trained facility dogs differ from service dogs, because they’re trained to work with multiple people rather than a single charge. But at that time they were mainly used in schools, with developmentally disabled kids, or in health care settings. But in 2004, the nonprofit Canine Companions placed a retriever named Ellie, the first courthouse facility dog, to work alongside a King County prosecutor.
The method took off from there, said O’Neill-Stephens, who travels the nation and worldwide spreading the courthouse dogs effort. As of last year, there were 322 dogs working in courthouses in 41 states, and many countries abroad as well. In the United States, most are placed with district attorneys’ offices or CASA programs. Demand is so high now that organizations spend years on waitlists to get matched with one of these coveted dogs.
Comfort in CPS court and beyond
The dogs put to work in these programs are specially bred, trained and selected for high levels of intelligence, empathy and a calm demeanor — most often retrievers or Labrador retrievers with a few poodles in their ranks.
They are life-size teddy bears for kids to curl up with, offering smooth fur for stroking as a way to relax. Sensitive to children’s emotions, dogs will often lean up against their legs or put their head in a child’s lap when they can sense sadness or stress.
Other times, dogs play games with their young charges. Forest, a lumbering 4-year-old black Labrador retriever mix working in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, has been trained to play the card game Uno with the kids and even paint, using his mouth to manipulate a paintbrush with a tennis ball affixed to its handle.
In Texas, a range of activities have spun off from the courthouse dog’s involvement. Ambriz hands out line drawings of Forest’s face for foster children to color in while they’re waiting in court. Other handlers share trading cards with fun facts about the canines. DeCorse’s team in Los Angeles hands out plush toy versions of the dogs, complete with personalized collars bearing each animal’s name.
These experiences, O’Neill-Stephens said, help children associate a positive memory with the court visit, on days that can otherwise feel bleak.
As hard as it is to believe, she said, “they leave happy, asking, ‘Can I come back and see the dog?’”
With some canine CASA teams, dogs assist outside the courthouse too. In Chaves County, New Mexico, a handsome yellow Lab named Tripper works in the family visitation center.
His presence can help create a smoother visit when relationships are fractured or new. When he senses a child is anxious, for example, the 90-pound dog will position his body between child and parent, acting as a calming buffer, said Carrie-Leigh Cloutier, CEO of Chaves County CASA.
Tripper also helps facilitate activities for families to play together during visitation. In one game, Tripper lays down on his side and his handler covers his body in little plastic bugs. He patiently holds that position while the child and parent take turns plucking the bugs off with tweezers.
This gives the family a chance to bond while maintaining a sense of security: “There’s this boundary right in the middle, this soft boundary that’s both safe, but reducing the stress so relationships can start to build,” Cloutier said.
Giving kids a voice
In 2021, recognizing the benefits these dogs bring to the justice system, the American Bar Association passed a resolution advocating for all court systems to allow their use. Providing children and other vulnerable witnesses the support of a dog improves access to the justice system, the association concluded.
“By establishing a safe and stable environment, these dogs assist the victim/witness to better recall and articulate critical, and truthful information,” the resolution states. At least 15 states have passed laws permitting courthouse dogs; elsewhere it’s often up to a judge’s discretion — though handlers say pushback is rare.
DeCorse recalled a recent case in Los Angeles County that involved three girls, ages 10 and younger, who were molested by the same person. When called to the stand, the 10-year-old could hardly speak and was trembling in fear. Halfway through questioning, the child visibly calmed and was able to start sharing her testimony — Nora, the silky retriever at her feet in the witness box, had begun kissing her ankle.
“In her worst moment while she was struggling to testify, and it made all the difference for her to feel braver,” DeCorse said. “Nora was telling her basically with the kisses, ‘You can do that.’”
