Bruce Erickson and his dog Bella started the Volunteer Therapy Dog Program when he saw how traumatized some of the children in the courts system are. It is the only therapy dog program in use in the court rooms in the state and it's currently in use in the 17th Judicial Circuit Court. The program has expanded from seven to 14 dogs and the scheduling was getting to be too big a job together with all the other aspects of the program like training, vaccinations, registration & insurance; so the judge's secretary took over that part. They clearly saw the value of the therapy dogs in calming the children, especially in cases of abuse, custody disputes or when the children are required to testify about a violent crime.
