Teacher's Pet w/ Cara Zelas

Cara Zelas is an early childhood teacher. While her dog, Little Dude, has changed her life in several ways – she's not the only one he's impacted. After training him to be a therapy dog through the Good Dog Foundation, they connected her with hospitals and schools to visit children and adults dealing with the trauma of disease, disability, and disaster. Little Dude provided them a level of comfort and relief during their hard times. Seeing that impact inspired Cara to bring Little Dude into more classrooms and use a dog, which kids always love, as a way to teach kids about kindness, empathy, and more. That our actions matter and even one little thing can make a big difference. She was inspired to write a set of cirrculum and books around these findings and lessons, which she also shares online for parents (and other teachers) to be able to use for learning with their own kids – which are especially helpful when parents are trying to work on educational activities with their kids at home.