Therapy Dogs Bring Balm to Stressed Jurors, Witnesses in Court

US District Court Judge Virginia Kendall introduced federal prosecutors and assorted Big Law attorneys to a very special courtroom assistant following a recent hearing.

From her side of the bench, Kendall looked toward the floor, then back at the lawyers. “Come say hello to the prosecutors!” Kendall called to Junebug, a seven-year-old, large and fluffy Bernese mountain breed.

Junebug and Birdie, a four-year old Bernese mountain dog, are two of the thousands of trained therapy dogs found in courthouses across the country that provide comfort and companionship to visitors, including victims in criminal trials. Unlike courthouse facility dogs, Junebug and Birdie aren’t trained to appear in active courtrooms. Court staff said the dogs have provided a valuable service as the pandemic piled additional stress on workers, juries, and witnesses.

Petting a therapy dog can lower blood pressure and help build trust, Amy Hrin, vice president of military affairs and special projects at American Humane, said. "[A] lot of benefits can occur in those settings where people might be very vulnerable,” she said.

“There is a body of research out there, clinical trials, all kinds of studies that show the benefits of interacting with animals,” Hrin said.

The two Bernese mountain dogs that often pad around the Everett Dirksen US Courthouse in downtown Chicago are ideal therapy dogs because the breed is extremely empathetic and sensitive, Kendall said.

“They’ll sit at your feet, and they’ll put their faces away from you so that they’re not intimidating,” Kendall said of her dogs.

Ron DeWald, counsel to the Illinois US Attorney for violent crime matters, said Junebug and Birdie were instrumental in assisting one traumatized woman who testified against a man charged with abducting her before setting her on fire. Because of her burns, she frequently took breaks outside the courtroom during her testimony.

“She was asking for the dogs to be back there for each of the breaks,” DeWald said.

Diplomas for Dogs

Many animals serve therapeutic purposes, including thousands of dogs in the US. The non-profit Alliance of Therapy Dogs boasts 17,000 members in the US and Canada who benefit from the group’s testing and certification program for therapy dogs that volunteer at funeral homes, hospitals, schools, and airports. Pet Partners, a non-profit that promotes the healing power of the human-animal bond, has about 7,600 registered teams of therapy dogs and their trainers.

Christine Vertucci, director of dog training and behavior at Chicago-based Canine Therapy Corps Inc., said her company offers six-week group training classes for dogs, performs certification tests, and connects therapy animals with partners such as hospitals.

Pet Partners and other organizations evaluate therapy teams—both the dog and its handler—but don’t require any sort of training, though many teams seek it before evaluations, Jesse Haas, senior national director of programs at Pet Partners, said. Pet Partners’s evaluation has about 20 different exercises to test a team, she said.

“There is so much attention to the temperament of the animal, but it is the human who is the one making a lot of the decisions and guiding the interaction,” Haas said.

Pandemic Added Stress

Therapy dog Junebug relaxes at the Everett Dirksen US Courthouse in Chicago.

Photographer: Stephen Joyce/Bloomberg Law

Junebug began appearing at the Chicago courthouse in 2016, providing comfort to witnesses and victims preparing to testify in court. Soon, prosecutors began calling Kendall to see if Junebug was available to visit the courthouse on days when victims or other courthouse visitors could use the dog’s calming presence.

Birdie joined Junebug when the Covid-19 pandemic changed courthouse operations.

“We would bring them to jurors who were masked and isolated in big rooms, and then we’d bring them to lawyers who’d be coming in. And we started to bring them in regularly just to make people feel comfortable. And now they come a few days a week,” said Kendall, who walks the dogs in a nearby park at lunchtime.

The judge is quick to point out that her therapy dogs aren’t courthouse facility dogs, a specific type of canine that graduated from an assistance dog organization affiliated with Assistance Dogs International, an organization that sets standards of excellence for assistance dog training. Using courthouse facility dogs in jury trials is often regulated by state law.

Many courthouse facility dogs are Labrador retrievers or golden retrievers. From puppyhood, these dogs are thoroughly trained, and not all dogs beginning the training make the grade, said Ellen O’Neill-Stephens, a former prosecutor who is founder and policy director of Bellevue, Wash.-based Courthouse Dogs Foundation.

Who serves as facility dog handlers also matters, O’Neill-Stephens said. They should be legal professionals or someone familiar with the legal system, she said.

The payoff for using the dogs can be significant. Research has shown that by establishing safe and stable environments courtroom facility dogs may be able to assist witnesses to recall and articulate information more truthfully, Hrin said.

Acceptance

Defense lawyers may claim the dogs in the courtroom could unfairly sway juries by making the witness appear vulnerable or likable, or someone who needs protection from the defendant. O’Neill-Stephens cited some cases where appellate courts have reversed trial court decisions for those very reasons.

But some case law has upheld the use of trained courthouse facility dogs. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2021, for instance, ruled in Commonwealth v. Purnell that a trial court judge didn’t err when he permitted a dog to accompany a minor to the witness stand in a murder trial.

The National District Attorneys Association said in a 2018 resolution it supports the use of courthouse facility dogs “to aid in the investigation of crimes involving young or vulnerable victims and witnesses and in situations where these animals would aid in the preparation for, or during trial or hearing testimony.”

And the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys said in a 2018 statement it supports using facility dogs for “quiet companionship to vulnerable individuals during the investigation and prosecution of crimes and other stressful legal proceedings.”

At least 16 states have enacted statutes permitting trained courthouse facility dogs to accompany victims and vulnerable witnesses in specified circumstances, according to the American Bar Association, which in 2021 adopted a resolution urging federal and state courts to allow courthouse facility dogs assist victims and other vulnerable witnesses “at any stage of the criminal justice system, including during their testimony in any judicial proceedings.”

For Kendall, the value of her dogs to the federal courthouse is palpable, appreciated, and helpful to building visitors and employees who could use some comforting. “They’re very good at sensing emotions,” she said. “I don’t know what it is.”