Meet our Facility Dogs, Mac & Widget!

Juliette's House welcomed Mac in July 2019. Mac is a Courthouse Facility Dog (a type of assistance dog), raised and trained on Bainbridge Island, Washington, by Assistance Dogs Northwest. Mac supports and comforts children and families while serving on the assessment team. Numerous studies have demonstrated that being in the presence of a dog can reduce blood pressure and heart rate.

Selected for his gentle nature and love of children, Mac provides this healing influence to the forensic investigations and medical examinations conducted at Juliette's House. Mac was trained in Maui and came from a Guide Dog program in Queensland, Australia, as well as attended conferences at Yale and San Diego.

Mac promotes the welfare of facility dogs with his primary handler, Julie Siepmann. She is the Clinical Services Director and Lead Forensic Interview at Juliette’s House. When Mac is not working, he lives with Julie and her family. Mac’s secondary handler is Kayla Noffsinger, another forensic interviewer at Juliette’s House. Having a second handler who is trained to use Mac in evaluations means that Mac can participate in all assessments with children at Juliette’s House, regardless of who the interviewer is.

Mac is proficient in about 90 distinct commands. Assistance dogs, including those trained by ADNW, receive comprehensive service dog training aimed at aiding individuals with physical mobility challenges. As part of this training, Mac has learned to perform tasks such as opening and closing doors, switching lights on and off, and retrieving dropped objects. While many of these commands are not essential for his daily duties, it’s fun for him to show off how smart he is!

Like Mac, assistance dogs are graduates of an accredited assistance dog organization. Originating in carefully bred litters, they have been socialized to a wide variety of conditions – public spaces, crowded restaurants, children of all ages, elevators and open stairways, office workspaces, public transportation, and cats. This wide socialization from an early age produces a dog that is not stressed by public life as an adult.

Furthermore, Widget is our Facility Dog Intern. She is a Labrador Retriever/Golden Retriever cross, and is just under a year old. Widget is in training for Canine Companions, working on housetraining, recognizing her name, learning to sit, and avoiding developing bad habits (jumping on people, putting her teeth on people, and biting the leash) that would have to be corrected later.

Having a well-trained assistance dog like Mac is incredibly beneficial. Puppies tend to learn a lot from adult dogs, with Mac setting an excellent example for Widget to emulate in terms of behavior expected from an assistance dog. This behavior reinforcement plays a significant role in the supportive activities at Juliette’s House. Raising a puppy involves considerable effort, particularly during the early stages, but the rewarding experience of contributing to the development of a dog that will significantly impact others is immeasurable. Canine Companions is an organization that provides dogs to children, adults, and veterans with disabilities, as well as professionals in the healthcare, criminal justice, and education sectors.

Overall, our trained Facility Dogs help clients physiologically by lowering stress, anxiety, blood pressure, and heart rate by reducing cortisol levels and raising endorphins and oxytocin levels in the body*. Facility Dogs also help clients psychologically in several ways, such as improving mental clarity through mood, reducing feelings of isolation through companionship, improving emotional regulation and behavioral control, and offering a higher sense of protection.

The therapeutic environment in child abuse intervention centers, like Juliette's House, can be changed by the presence of facility dogs. They not only help lower physiological stress indicators but also provide emotional support, which is crucial for trauma survivors as they work toward recovery. By providing a non-threatening, accepting presence, facility dogs can help bridge the gap between clients and therapists, often facilitating easier and more open communication. Ultimately, they enhance the treatment process and build a safer reality for the client.

*Cortisol is the primary stress hormone that lowers inflammation, boosts blood pressure and metabolism, aids in the body's reaction to stress and danger, and influences the "fight, flight, freeze, or fawn" response. Endorphins are hormones that are released when the body is under stress or pain, and their purpose is to relieve stress, reduce pain, and elevate mood. Oxytocin is a natural stress-reducing hormone that plays an important role in many human behaviors including promoting parent-child bonding, enabling people to recognize one another, and increasing sexual arousal. (healthdirect.gov, 2024)