As the school year is coming to an end, exciting events keep popping up at GCDS. Last week was color wars, this week has featured a senior prank, and there is now a Puppy Day at the Upper School! An email went out to the Upper School telling everyone about Puppy Day, and faculty and students alike are extremely excited. 

Shannon Hart, an 11th-grade student, sent out an email with a big announcement regarding Puppy Day. As part of her thesis on animal-human bonding, Shannon will be bringing in a group of therapy dogs and emotional support dogs. Students and faculty on the Stanwich campus will be able to spend some time with these dogs on Thursday, May 20th. The puppies will be in room N-26 from 11:30-2:45, allowing plenty of people to stop by and spend some time with the dogs. 

Not only does this Puppy Day aid Shannon with her thesis, but it also helps students who are feeling stressed. As we inch closer to the end of the school year, and projects come to a close, students are really feeling the stress. With POL’s on top of these end-of-year projects, students need a nice short break away from schoolwork, and what better way to do that than with puppies? 

As we know, juniors at GCDS are tasked with a year-long thesis project. When asked about her thesis, Shannon said, “My thesis topic is on Animal-human bonds, which I personally am extremely interested in both from a physical and psychological standpoint.” Juniors are advised to choose a topic that they are truly passionate about since they have to work on it for so long. Shannon told us that what initially sparked her interest was her love for animals. “When Mrs. Mcdonald told me at the start of the year to write about something I wouldn’t get bored of, dogs were the first thing that came to mind,” she said. While her love for dogs was incredibly useful to her thesis, she had to narrow down her topic. She decided to look into dogs on the force, such as the K9 unit. “It is something I have always loved seeing and reading about in everyday life, and that is what led me to the relationship part of my topic when thinking about the dogs and their officers,” Shannon stated. Her goal for her thesis is to obtain research on how these bonds are created and how they affect both dogs and humans. Significant parts of her project include service, therapy, and emotional support dogs, dogs on the force, and fire dogs. Shannon’s thesis will be able to give animal lovers a reason as to why they feel the way they do about their dogs and vice versa. 

Shannon had high hopes for Puppy Day and her thesis. “I’m so in love with the idea, that I can’t really imagine it going wrong in any way. Any big way at least. I know how excited I am, but I also know how excited all of the students are and that makes me really happy and proud of all of the work I’ve done so far to get to this point,” she said in an interview. Puppy Day did end up being a success. A few dogs did arrive at the designated time, and plenty of students and faculty stopped by to say hello to all of the dogs. There were 3 dogs total: Paisley, Poppy, and Coltrane. All of the dogs did an amazing job with students, and of course, students were very excited to be there with all of the puppies. 

For the most part, students had positive reactions to Puppy Day. “At first, I was a little disappointed to see one dog there, but when the other dogs came I was really happy,” said an Upper School student. While some students just stopped by to see the puppies, other students spent their lunch block in the room with the dogs. Another student said, “They were all so cute, and it was such a fun experience! I hope that they do this again next year.” Students were glad to have the chance to see some cute dogs, especially now that everyone is stressed from end-of-year projects.

After this Puppy Day, it’s clear that students and faculty truly appreciated this opportunity. Is it possible that this event will happen in future years? GCDS will have to wait and see. This was the first-ever Puppy Day at GCDS, and it was a huge success.