{"id":22787,"date":"2024-04-16T20:20:43","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T00:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2024\/04\/17\/meet-winnie-neccs-soon-to-be-comfort-dog\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T12:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:01:13","slug":"meet-winnie-neccs-soon-to-be-comfort-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2024\/04\/16\/meet-winnie-neccs-soon-to-be-comfort-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Winnie, NECC\u2019s Soon-to-Be Comfort Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_27923\" style=\"width: 509px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/02\/Winnie.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27923\" class=\" wp-image-27923\" src=\"http:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/02\/Winnie.jpg\" alt=\"yellow lab puppy sits on green grass looking at camera\" width=\"499\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-27923\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Winnie is the newest member of the NECC Police Dept.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Haverhill and Lawrence, MA (April 16, 2024)\u2014The Northern Essex Community College Police Department has a new rookie on the squad: Paw-ficer Winnie! The 9-week-old yellow Labrador Retriever will eventually serve as NECC\u2019s comfort dog. She will provide stress relief, calm nerves, and bring cheer to students, faculty, and staff.<\/p>\n<p>Since her first official day of work, Winnie has already shown the positive impact a comfort dog can have on the community. Her handler, Lt. Keith Walker, says students routinely stop by to say hello to her, which has sparked some new connections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStudents who would just walk by and say a quick hello before are now in my office. One even shared that he wanted to be a police officer. So, she\u2019s only been here a few days but already conversations are happening that wouldn\u2019t have otherwise,\u201d says Walker.<\/p>\n<p>Winnie also brought together more than 370 members of the NECC community who voted on her name. Winnie earned 117 votes, edging out Millie, Essie, and Rosie.<\/p>\n<p>While Walker\u2019s office is in the Sports and Fitness Center on the Haverhill Campus, he says Winnie will eventually split her time between both campuses.<\/p>\n<p>Winnie will be leaving NECC periodically for training. First, she will undergo two weeks of basic obedience training starting the week of April 22. Anyone who wants to meet Winnie before then is encouraged to stop by Spring Jam on the Haverhill Campus on Wednesday, April 17, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Winnie also has her own Instagram page: @NECCwinnie.<\/p>\n<p>Information about Winnie, her schedule (once she&#8217;s fully entered service), and more <a href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/public-safety\/comfort-dog\/\">will be\u00a0available on her webpage.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Haverhill and Lawrence, MA (April 16, 2024)\u2014The Northern Essex Community College Police Department has a new rookie on the squad: Paw-ficer Winnie! The 9-week-old yellow Labrador Retriever will eventually serve [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":26045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13,14,15],"tags":[110,250,418,560,650],"class_list":["post-22787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-and-staff","category-featured","category-headlines","tag-campus-police","tag-faculty","tag-mental-health","tag-staff","tag-winnie"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Meet Winnie, NECC\u2019s Soon-to-Be Comfort Dog - NECC News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2024\/04\/16\/meet-winnie-neccs-soon-to-be-comfort-dog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet Winnie, NECC\u2019s Soon-to-Be Comfort Dog - NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Haverhill and Lawrence, MA (April 16, 2024)\u2014The Northern Essex Community College Police Department has a new rookie on the squad: Paw-ficer Winnie! 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