The Pitkin County Sheriff's Office has a new addition to the School Resource Officer team. Otto the Golden Retriever Puppy was sworn in in August. The program was set in motion nearly a year ago by Officer Drew Lucchesi. Otto lives with Lucchesi and his family full time and together they serve all Pitkin County schools including Aspen Country Day, Aspen High School, and Aspen Middle School.
Otto is a little over three months, but he is already a working man. He attends school drop offs, pick ups, and provides comfort for the kids. He is currently being trained to get his therapy certification. Lucchesi says that Otto is meant to help the kids emotionally and build trust between students and SROs.
"The main issues that we saw was like the increase in stress and anxiety amongst like students and schools in general these days. Studies have shown having dogs around like decreases that stress, decreases that anxiety. I feel like we already have a really welcoming community here where the students want to see us and talk to us."
But maybe there's some students that were missing and them approaching the dog gets that opportunity. That's the opportunity now to talk to that kid. It's likely that Otto will be the only SRO dog, but Lucchesi is open to expanding the program in the future.
"Seeing maybe like another close agency get a dog for like a similar situation as a therapy dog or comfort dog, I think that could be great."
Maybe down the road we get a dog that does something different, that finds something different. Lucchesi says that Otto is for the community and he encourages people to come up and talk to them and give Otto a pet.
