Dogs helping the judicial system

Dogs being used to provide emotional support in courtrooms is an interesting idea.

Here's a story from USA Today by Kathleen Gray.

The idea of using dogs to ease the tension of being in a courtroom is gaining popularity across the country. Courthousedogs.com began in Seattle when [King County senior prosecuting attorney Ellen O'Neill] Stephens took her son's service dog, Jeeter, to work and discovered that the dog had a calming effect on young witnesses. The prosecutor's office started using Labradors Ellie and Jeeter as courthouse dogs in 2003 for pretrial interviews and in courtrooms. Now the practice is spreading across the country to courts in Texas, California, Florida, Missouri and Michigan.

Gray, a reporter for the Detroit Free Press, wrote that the dogs go through a couple years of training, first learning basic commands such as come, sit and stay and then more advanced commands such as opening doors, coping with crowds and picking up dropped items.

In southern Missouri, therapist Diane Silman uses Simon, her 2-year-old black Labrador, on an almost daily basis to help with interviews and court testimony of abused children and domestic violence victims.

"The dog is non-judgmental and is so soothing," said Silman, executive director of the Ozark Foothills Child Advocacy Center in Doniphan, Mo., which conducts pretrial interviews.

From Courthousedogs.com:

Assistance dogs accompanying a witness in the courtroom should have the following characteristics:

• They must be quiet, unobtrusive, and emotionally available for the witness when the need arises
• The dogs should be able to sit or lie down beside the witness for an extended period of time
• The dogs should not engage in any behavior that would distract the witness or other people in the courtroom
• The dogs should be able to assist the witness for as long as necessary

How about it New York?