Isanti County 2nd in the state to welcome therapy dog

Sherburne County Sheriff Joel Brott sees similarities between crime-fighting K-9s and therapy dogs — with an added layer of assistance to people

by Nikki Hallman

APG of East Central Minnesota/ County News Review

Just seven months ago, Isanti County Sheriff Wayne Seiberlich and Investigator Sean Connolly announced the sheriff’s office would soon be receiving a working therapy dog.

And indeed, he has arrived. “I fell in love with Cooper right off the bat,” Connolly said.

At just under 2 years old, the yellow lab Cooper (formerly named Guppie) recently joined the team and has already made an emotional impact.

“To think that all it takes is a dog to help us out — we should have done this a long time ago. We wouldn’t be losing all these cops to suicide and domestics and alcohol,” Connolly said with tears in his eyes.

Part of Cooper’s job — that may not be in the description — is to hopefully save lives. Connolly says the department won’t know 100% how many he will save, but there is already one on the list.

“Cooper, to me, already worked and he hadn’t even been here yet,” he said. “We had a 16-year-old juvenile — this was about a month before I was going to see Cooper — and he was on one of our bridges, and it was a very sad situation.”

Connolly mentioned there was a clear intention from the teen that he wanted to end his life. A 20-minute discussion began after hearing there was only one solution, according to the teen.

“Your brain gives you an answer to a problem and it’s going to give you the quickest answer,” Connolly said. “I want to say, ‘Why would your brain only give you one answer and not a multiple choice question.’” In his opinion and experience, Connolly said the best way to show a person he truly cares in a situation like this is to be empathetic and share his own qualms.

“We’re not immune to having these issues ourselves,” Connolly said.

“There came a point where I’m like, ‘I gotta figure out another way to go about our conversation,’ and then I brought up Cooper,” Connolly said. “I told him, ‘I really wish I had him (Cooper) right now, because I would love for you to meet him.’” The teen started to gain trust through talking about Cooper and came down from the dangerous situation.

“I got roughly 10 feet from him and he stood up, and at that time I think my dad mode kicked in, and I just extended my arms out wide and said, ‘Give me a big hug.’ He comes running over to me and he just hugged and cried and cried,” Connolly said.

He made sure the teen knew he was serious about Cooper and showed him photos, then later brought him to the sheriff’s office to see a poster about the therapy dog.

“We ended up talking for another half hour or so here (at the sheriff’s office), and he opened up and it just poured out,” Connolly said.

Since the incident, the teen has stayed in touch with the investigator and was able to share more of his thoughts.

“(Connolly asked the teen) What was it that brought you to not do that? He said — and I’m paraphrasing here — ‘Honestly it was you, the compassion, and I want to meet your dog,’” he said.

This surprised Connolly, how much of a part Cooper already played in a serious situation.

“In hindsight, he (Cooper) already saved a life without even being here,” he said.

Connolly said they are setting up a time for the teen to officially meet Cooper, despite him not living in the county.

Additional impacts

Now that Cooper is there, his purpose is certainly showing. He has already brought tears to the eyes of Isanti County employees.

And he’s been on the job for less than two weeks.

Sherburne County Sheriff Joel Brott is not surprised.

Sherburne County’s current K-9 program uses dogs trained for narcotics detection, apprehension, and tracking, but the benefits of having the program go far beyond the functions of law enforcement.

“The K-9s have a positive effect on community engagement,” Brott said. “The dogs are like a magnet, and just about everyone loves to see the dogs and wants to engage and meet the dog and officer. This provides for positive interactions with law enforcement that might not otherwise happen.”

One of the first tasks on Cooper’s list was to meet employees. So Connolly began making his rounds through different departments.

“Since this past year, with everything that’s happened with staff, everybody says we could have used him,” he said.

“The outpouring of love and appreciation of us having this dog is so immense that some of them wish they could have more ‘Coopers’ in each of their departments, all day long.”

Connolly said his goal is to be available to anyone and everyone, especially after seeing how struck the employees were.

“Cooper will be a stress reliever for all the county employees and specifically the Sheriff’s Office, where he will be free to roam the secured employee area of the Sheriff’s Office and visit with co-workers daily. This will help with better wellness at the workplace for all our co-workers,” he said.

Even months prior to receiving Cooper, when the sheriff’s office first introduced the program at the Isanti County Fair, a resident explained they would have been another person to benefit from a therapy dog.

Connolly explained the person said, “I’m so glad you guys are doing this because if you had this at the time I had my situation, I would have been a lot different.”

“Coming from someone that actually needed something different than just the typical cop intervention, I think that it showed more of the need,” Connolly said.

Brott said he sees therapy dogs in a similar light to K-9s used for fighting crime, but with an added layer of assistance to people.

“Mental health calls for assistance are prevalent everywhere, adults and adolescents alike,” said. “These types of working therapy dogs can add another tool that could help lead to a positive outcome. Dogs just tend to lower anxiety, create a calming effect and refocus people’s attention, which can help some people relax.”

Connolly said mental health calls come through the county daily, even multiple times per day. And in his opinion, the mental health calls have increased significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think after COVID hit, with everyone being so, we’ll say, ‘imprisoned’ in their houses, I think it took a toll,” Connolly said.

Cooper will be going to work with Connolly daily as he is a working K-9 deputy, and they will be going to dispatched calls such as mental health related calls, crisis calls, suicidal calls, critical incident calls, and traumatic event calls such as fatal crashes.

About Cooper

After reaching out to Washington County — the only other county to have a therapy dog — in June 2023, the sheriff’s office got more information on how to receive one of their own.

That’s when the department connected with Freedom Service Dogs of America (FSD), based in Englewood, Colorado, a nonprofit that custom-trains assistance dogs for veterans, children and teens with disabilities and other individuals with physical challenges. Cooper would add to that list as therapy dogs for law enforcement agencies.

Isanti County is the second agency in the U.S. to reach out to FSD — Washington County to be the first — and is the second in the state of Minnesota to have a working therapy dog.

The idea came to Seiberlich’s mind during election season in 2022, when he was running for sheriff. He had a goal to really connect with the community and try to help others in more than one way.

“Oftentimes when we respond to a mental health call, that uniform becomes an immediate barrier,” Seiberlich said. “That person thinks they are in trouble or they don’t want to go to jail or they don’t want any help at all.”

When FSD heard another law enforcement agency was interested in receiving a dog, they wanted to speed up the process, which would normally take up to three years to find the right dog.

They also wanted to learn more from Connolly.

“The law enforcement part of it is still new to them, so they’re bouncing off ideas from me (when he was at FSD) and they also asked if I can help out their team there so they can do more for more law enforcement agencies,” Connolly said.

Just before a full knee replacement surgery, Connolly made contact with Shelby Cramer, who began working with the sheriff’s office through the process. He then made a trip to Colorado in February for a meet-and-greet with Cooper.

He knew they would be a great fit, both on the job and at home with his family, right after meeting him. Once they connected, and after a completed surgery, Connolly went back on April 15 for a two-week training period where he could work with Cooper and learn his cues.

Cooper has roughly 35-40 cues that are geared toward the victims. Some include laying on laps for long periods of times, putting his head on a knee, bringing a box of tissues to someone, bringing someone their shoes, and even waking someone suffering from night terrors.

“He’s literally a weighted security blanket, if needed,” Connolly said.

Brenna Palen, who raised Cooper from a puppy, made sure to socialize him as much as possible and even brought him to events that would be similar for situations at a sheriff’s office.

“They are trying to simulate probably what I would run into, so hockey games — abrupt screaming, yelling, and see if he gets startled,” Connolly said. “They went to a fire station to get him used to a siren.”

Cooper is now considered a law enforcement officer (deputy) by the state of Minnesota law, and will have the same legal protections as with all the deputies and officers who are working to better communities.

Taking a break

With FSD and the donors supporting this program, Cooper and Connolly will be with victims of domestics, sexual assaults and child abuse. Cooper will also be present during the forensic interview process with the juvenile victims to add comfort and become a security/stress relieving blanket for the victim.

He will also assist with accompanying the victims that have a difficult time testifying on the stand in court proceedings, and would aid in adding comfort and building confidence for the victim to testify.

More difficult times will arise where Cooper and Connolly will go to calls for fatal crash scenes to be there for the individuals who are involved, and to bring them some sense of comfort and distraction with the death of a loved one — particularly with children.

He said Cooper will also assist in death notifications as well, especially for parents that lost their child.

All of these situations take a huge mental strain on Connolly as he’s experienced in the past.

“I am so lucky and grateful that I get a partner all day long that’s with me to comfort me and comfort others, let alone when I go home and need that comfort because of a stressful day — as some of the calls I go to — he’s there to comfort me at night,” he said. “Cooper’s doing double duty, and I get the benefit of it.”

Connolly shared that May is the worst month for mental health calls that he’s seen, but this year he is happy to have Cooper alongside him.

“Sitting back and watching him interact is going to be the most fulfilling thing for me, as an officer, in my whole career,” he said.

FSD adds program to help first responders

FSD just added to their program of therapy dogs, service dogs and skilled companion dogs, officially offering them to first responders who experience post-traumatic stress disorder.

This is brand new to the nonprofit, as they have mainly been assisting with veterans and those with disabilities.

“We believe every dog has a purpose, and part of our mission is to place each dog with the individual or situation in which they can have the greatest impact,” said Erin Conley, director of communications for FSD. “We are excited about all the future possibilities as we expand our programs to place professional therapy dogs with law enforcement agencies and provide service dogs to first responders with PTSD and other disabilities.

“There are so many ways dogs can make a difference, and we’re honored to have a hand in setting them up for success as they carry out their purpose alongside their human partners.”

(Editor’s note: Jim Boyle contributed to this report.)