New ‘Student’ at Bellaire High School: Darwin the Service Dog

Rachel Contello, an incoming senior at Bellaire High School, hugs her service dog, Darwin. (Photo: Dylan Aguilar) 

Rachel Contello, an incoming senior at Bellaire High School, looks every bit the typical teenager. She’s dressed in a t-shirt, maroon jeans, Vans sneakers and her dark brown hair is accentuated with blue tips. On Aug. 28, the first day of school, she’ll start her senior year prepared with books and school supplies, as usual. But this year, she’ll also start her year off armed with her seven-month-old shepherd-mix rescue dog, Darwin.

Darwin, a three-legged pup with a dark brown coat, will be the first service dog in the history of Bellaire High School and the first at an HISD high school. There have been two other service dogs in HISD, both at an elementary school, but he’s the first at a high school. Darwin – named after Charles Darwin because of Rachel's love of science - is a Psychiatric Service Dog who helps Rachel with her severe anxiety and panic attacks by alerting to them and using relaxation tactics to help her calm down.

It’s easy to see why Darwin’s presence would naturally quell anxiety. Clearly still exhibiting playful puppy behavior, he has a huge smile on his face, tongue out as he pants with excitement and exudes positive energy. But there’s a big difference between a therapy dog and a service dog, Rachel explains. A therapy dog is one that is trained to be taken to groups of people in public places like hospitals or senior centers or college campuses during final exams to help bring joy and soothe people. Darwin, who wears a red Service Dog vest, is being trained as a service dog. Service dogs can be trained to detect cortisol levels, the stress hormone our adrenal glands secrete when we become anxious, or low blood sugar or the onset of a seizure. 

In Rachel’s case, Darwin will be able to detect anxiety and panic attack symptoms, such as when her breathing rates change, if she becomes rigid or shows signs of stress that signal that a panic attack is about to occur. Darwin will be trained to alert her. When she starts to show symptoms, he will crawl in her lap and give her deep pressure therapy to help her calm down. Rachel is also training him to help her stop impulsive behaviors during panic attacks.

Rachel Contello has been training seven-month-old shepherd mix Darwin to be a Psychiatric Service Dog. Darwin is helping Rachel with her anxiety and will accompany her to school this year. (Photo: Dylan Aguilar) 

“When I have panic attacks I tend to do impulsive things such as incessantly rubbing my neck and face with my hands,” she said, “He will also be taught to notice these things and intervene by nudging me again and trying to distract me.” In addition, Darwin will be trained to grab medication or other helpful items Rachel might need during a panic attack.

“School has always been a huge source of anxiety,” Rachel says, and she expects that it’ll be less anxiety-provoking this year. Last year and the year before, she missed a lot of school due to panic attacks or would often come in late, unable to get out of bed. Her family received truancy letters from the school. This year, Darwin will be trained to wake Rachel up in the mornings.

“I can’t imagine waking up to a panic attack when he’s waking me up,” she says. She also expects to feel comforted by his presence during the school day. “If I’m in a class where I don’t have any friends, at least I’ll have him with me.” 

Rachel had the idea to pursue training a dog to help her when she was in the hospital for her severe anxiety. She noticed another patient had an emotional support animal (ESA). At the time, Rachel thought ESAs could go everywhere with you but after researching it found that that’s not true. After looking more into it, she realized Psychiatric Support Dogs are allowed to go anywhere, and she talked to her parents about it, who supported the idea.

The next day, her family went to SPCA, where they found Darwin. “He would not let me leave him,” Rachel remembers, smiling. “We took him home that same day.”

That’s when they started researching programs in which the dogs would be trained and returned to their families, and found that sending Darwin to be trained would cost about $30,000. But then she found Service Dog Express, a program that would be far less expensive and would help Rachel’s family train Darwin themselves. It turns out, they were overbooked but Rachel was determined. She woke up at 3 a.m. to apply and was ultimately accepted into the program.

The way it works is that a trainer comes to Rachel’s home about once a month and teaches Rachel how to train Darwin. She’s been extensively working with him for about four months, since April. During class, Darwin is trained to tuck himself under her desk. However, Darwin’s still a puppy, and although he already helps Rachel cope with her anxiety, the first day of school, Aug. 28, will be a trial day. Darwin’s already been at school with her on a few other occasions but her first day will be a good day to really test the waters, Rachel says. She has three hours of an advocacy period to finesse her schedule and classes will be shorter that day. So if something doesn’t go smoothly, she’ll pull him out of school and try again later.

With Darwin’s friendly demeanor, it might be a challenge, at least initially, for the other students to refrain from petting him. But they shouldn’t pet him. While therapy dogs are there for groups of people to pet and cuddle, service dogs are “on the job,” Rachel explains. It’s actually dangerous for service dogs to be pet by strangers in public places because then they won’t be attuned to their owners’ needs, she says. They’ll be focused on the person petting them, and not whether their owner is exhibiting symptoms that they need to be alert to.

Mr. Michael McDonough, principal of Bellaire High School, says he expects that having Darwin around might be a bit of a distraction at first. "But once the novelty wears off, I think it will go well," he says, describing the student body at Bellaire as laid-back and nice. "We want Rachel, and all our kids, to feel comfortable on campus." 

Rachel says that during class, Darwin is “off limits” from other people. During lunchtime, she’s planning to take him outside for some playtime and will take his Service Dog vest off to signify to him that it’s time to play. But when the vest comes back on, he’s at work again.

When asked if there’s anything she’d want her classmates to know, she says: “I would want people to know that they should act like he’s not there. The law considers him a piece of medical equipment.” She encourages students not to react to him and not to be afraid of him, either. “Act like he’s not even there.” 

That way, Darwin can be there for Rachel.

“I’m dreading school a lot less,” she says. Rachel hopes to study psychology in college and, one day, become a psychologist.