If you can’t look on the bright side, we will sit with you in the dark.
161 Elgin Dogs is an organization that delivers a volunteer-based pet therapy program in the Ottawa area and in communities across the National Capital Region at no charge.
Our lovingly named 161 Elgin Dogs provides social interaction and emotional support to victims testifying at trials. We have found a welcome home at the Drug Treatment Court, Youth Mental Health Court, Mental Health Court as well as Indigenous Peoples Court.
Your Ottawa team will attend any case, in any courtroom, with the permission of the presiding Judge. Our teams that volunteer in the Ottawa Courthouse are long standing participants of the judicial process.
This PAWS initiative embraced by the justices, crown attorneys, and defense lawyers alike at the Ottawa Courthouse was initiated in 2017 and continued through the pandemic, with the therapy dogs staying with each of the programs over Zoom.
We are delighted to be able to continue in person for the foreseeable future.
The PAWS program brings together the judicial system, which can be daunting for many, and teams specifically trained for the courthouse. We are proud partners of the community support that the DTC, MHC, IPC and the YMHCC offer to their participants.
Our small Ottawa PAWS team—the support pets—logged in an astounding 826 hours in 2024. It was not uncommon to have four teams in the courthouse at the same time assisting different court officers.
The teams that you see in the courthouse week in and week out consist of handlers with diverse backgrounds: two retired psychologists, an auditor, a biochemist, an ECE, a vet, and a librarian.
What makes the Ottawa PAWS team so effective is our knowledge of the therapeutic process.
Having a therapy dog present in the courtroom physically lowers stress hormone levels, regulates breathing, stabilizes cortisol and epinephrine levels, lowers blood pressure and heart rate, and increases the levels of beta-endorphin, which reduces pain.
Emotionally, there is a marked reduction in feelings of anger, hostility, tension, and anxiety. The dogs facilitate by improving social interactions; they help build trust and self-esteem.
The dogs also aid in overcoming emotional dysregulation, which makes this PAWS program effective in helping to treat co-occurring disorders.
For the V/WAP program, teams are assigned to best fit with the victim. This is the area most stressful on the handler and is a true test of the dog’s stability, as they cannot move from the victim’s side for the duration of the testimony.
In essence, we are asking a dog to remain motionless for hours a day for possibly weeks.
We would be extremely grateful and welcome your purchase of the 2025 Calendar “When Good Dogs Go Bad” to assist our volunteers with their expenses pertaining to attending the Ottawa Courthouse. Proceeds will aid in the cost of parking and are overseen by the judges discretionary fund.
In closing, we want to leave you with this message.
“Tuesday, I know that in the DTC, there is a dog who loves me for who I am. Who I want to be. That I get to feed, that I get to play with, and that I get to hold. And I get to talk to you guys about food and cooking and books and family.”
Regards,
The Teams of the Ottawa Courthouse
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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