(upbeat music) -We continue our conversations with folks down in Atlantic City at the New Jersey Education Association Convention.

Jacqui, Tee this up with Andrea Hering, which is a compelling, terrific interview, please.

- Yeah, so, well, her and her team, with Crisis Response Canines, are at the NJEA for the past couple of years.

For a while now, they show up there with their dogs.

You'll see one of the dogs on set with us while I'm talking to Andrea about this really important organization.

She started this back in 2018.

She was working at, you know, just a desk job, doing her thing, and she came up with this idea because of her passion working with dogs, to start this organization where the dogs will go out and be a support system to people who were going through major crisis, specifically, and right when this started, when there had been a lot of mass shootings.

So her and her team train the dogs, and have their handlers, and the handlers are trained a specific way as well, to be this response team that are deployed all over the United States.

It started here in New Jersey, but she's branched out over the years, deploying all over the United States to really help victims and survivors of mass shootings, but other really horrible events as well.

Their first deployment was Pulse nightclub down in Florida.

They've been to so many different places, including Uvalde and Michigan State University when the mass shootings took place there, and- - So they take, one second, Jacqui, they take the dogs there?

- Yeah, they travel with the dogs to these places.

And these dogs just serve as such an important tool, especially to young people, to help them open up and get through this tragedy or get them to a place where they can open up to the support professionals, the therapists, whoever else might be involved, because so many of them are shut off at that point and don't know how to move forward, and the dogs just serve as this really important tool in the whole process.

Andrea's amazing, her team's really great.

You'll see Lincoln on set with me, one of her service dogs who's really great, and Axel- - Lincoln's there?

Lincoln's in the- - Yeah, yep, yep.

And Axel's one of the other support dogs that was there.

And it's funny 'cause Andrea says, every year that they come back, the educators at the NJEA convention run over to see the dogs and they remember the dog's names, but they never remember the people there, their names.

- Jacqui, Mary Gamba, who is the executive director of the Caucus Educational Corporation, who is the co-anchor of our sister series, "Lessons in Leadership," and the executive producer there, she loves dogs, wants to do an animal rescue thing when she leaves me, which is probably gonna be any day now.

I'm joking.

But she loves dogs.

- Yeah, she has that passion.

I said, I was joking with one of our other producers while we were there with the dogs hanging out with them, I said, "Oh, if Mary was here, she'd probably be crying."

But these dogs are really, I mean, they're phenomenal, and they're trained a very specific way, like I said, the handlers are trained a very specific way, and they do the work, but are also very well taken care of too.

- Sometimes I don't appreciate how important and valuable dogs are in people's lives, and this interview that Jacqui did with Andrea Hering shows us why that in fact is the case.

They're incredibly important, check it out.

- Hi, I am Jacqui Tricarico on location at the NJEA Convention here in Atlantic City, and I'm so pleased to be joined kind of by two guests here, Andrea Herring, who is the president and founder of Crisis Response Canines, and this lovely gentleman here, Lincoln, one of the dogs that is working with you and your organization.

Tell us first a little bit about this organization that you started kinda grassroots here in New Jersey.

- Yeah, so the organization was founded in 2018 based on providing emotional support to first responders, victims, communities after tragedies.

- And, unfortunately, this type of emotional support is needed more now than ever.

It's sad to say that that is needed, especially in crises like mass shootings.

Talk about some of the places that you've been with these amazing dogs who are trained specifically to really be that emotional support for people during some of the worst moments in their lives.

- Absolutely, and I'll start too by saying I started in therapy dog work back in 2008.

As the world started to change, we started to see people realizing how beneficial canines were, but they were asking us to put them in more complex and unpredictable environments, such as large scale tragedies.

And we realized the dogs were fine, but the handlers needed the additional training.

So that is where kind of the Crisis Response Canines came into play, is now we're taking our partners with the canine and pairing it with a trained handler as well.

So we started our large scale deployments in 2016 with Pulse nightclub, was our very first one, and then we've been around the country.

- And down there, that was the shooting at the nightclub down in Florida.

- That is correct.

And we worked with the first responders, we worked at the reunification site.

We met family members and community members and provided comfort to those individuals.

- So going back to that time, 2018, that's the first response situation that you're put in to go and be with the people, the survivors of this horrific event.

- Correct.

- How did that spark even more fuel in your fire to be able to expand this?

'Cause now we're just not in New Jersey, you have several locations throughout the country, people, the handlers, the dogs, the therapy dogs going out and being that quick response to the folks that really need it.

- So from there, we realized how beneficial those canines were, paired with a handler that was trained in critical incident stress management.

So, you know, we've grown significantly, because now, we've started to incorporate the dogs, not only after large scale tragedies, but we have nine contracts with hospitals locally, and we work specifically with the staff, so when COVID happened and the burnout and all that.

So now, we provide animal-assisted workplace wellbeing programs for the staff as well.

So we're taking care of individuals and we're branching out from tragedies, but into everyday life with mental health.

- And mental health is a big theme here at the NJEA Convention this year, mental health of our students, but of our staff, the educators that are burnt out as well like you said it, just like our first responders are from COVID and everything that happened there.

How do you see the people that are coming by?

You're located over there with the dogs, they're in there hanging out with people.

How do you see the reaction is from the educators coming to see you and the dogs?

- They love seeing the dogs.

We were here last year, they remember the dogs, you know, that were here last year, they know them by name, so they're looking for them, which is really cool.

We've also started partnering with some of the school districts to provide that animal-assisted school counseling.

So we really focus on the goal-based interventions.

While there's the therapy dog animals and activities where, you know, a dog will go visit a classroom or something, we try to do goal-based, so we could have measurable outcomes.

So if our dogs are going into schools, maybe we'll do it with an occupational therapist.

The dogs will wear a vest and there's Velcro, so we can work with some of the students on, you know, some of the tactile stuff with vest.

So we try to gear it to a little more advanced therapeutic intervention.

- That's amazing.

And, you know, we talked about Pulse nightclub, there are so many other places, especially recently that you've been, up to Maine.

- That's correct.

- After the horrific mass shooting that happened there, Uvalde, with the survivors, especially the young kids there that survived that horrific mass shooting.

Talk about, for the dog, seeing them with these children.

What does that do for them?

'Cause it's an emotional support, but you talked a bit to me before we even did this about them helping opening those kids up to receive that next level of therapy and what they really need in that time to help them deal with these huge tragedies that they face.

- So a lot of times, after individuals, children, they experienced a tragedy, they become nonverbal, they don't wanna open up, they don't wanna communicate.

And what these dogs provide is a really good icebreaker to start breaking down those barriers, they gain trust instantly, they don't ask unwise questions.

And we could have a very casual conversation with a child, you know, "Do you like dogs?

Do you like the way he feels?

His name is Lincoln.

Do you have a dog?"

And just those simple conversations start opening up, you know, communication, and then we could allow, you know, professionals to take from there, you know, to start bridge that road to recovery - This was not your day job?

- No.

(both laughing) - You're doing insurance, and this is what you started, it's grown significantly.

Talk about what this work does for you too.

- It's a passion.

I mean, I really enjoy sharing, being able to share my animals, even being able to provide dogs and handlers to these people that when almost all hope is lost, this gives them some hope.

These dogs are willing to listen, no matter what.

You don't have to say anything.

- Judgment-free.

- Absolutely judgment-free.

You know, you don't have to say anything, you can literally just hold onto the dog, and they can provide, you know, nonverbal support to you.

So really, it's fulfilling to be able to give that back to the community.

- And supporting the dogs too.

You know, they're traveling a lot, they're around so many people, that's what they're trained to do, but you're also making sure you support the animals as well and the handlers.

- We do, so that's why it's very important that we have a very specific dog on our team.

You know, a dog that can handle the stress, they display stress signals properly.

We train our handlers in canine body language, so they could identify if their canines had enough of the situation.

So animal welfare is one of our top priorities for our handlers.

- That's awesome.

Well, thank you for bringing Lincoln over.

Thank you for talking to us.

Lincoln, good job, buddy.

First time on camera?

Probably not.

(Jacqui laughing) You're used to the camera, right?

Well, thank you so much.

- At least he didn't act like an idiot this time.

(both laughing) - He hang out, thank you.

- Yeah, thank you.

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