The Gravelly Hill Middle School sixth grader is sitting on a conference room floor rubbing a small dog’s belly. Maya’s large, attentive ears are capturing Noah’s words.

Noah is one of several dozen students in the Orange County school system who benefit from Pet Pals, a nonprofit program for pet-assisted activities and therapy founded in 2010 by Wendy Stewart, a clinical social worker.

“I had been wanting for some time to bring pet therapy to my work in the schools,” said Stewart, who lives on a farm with dogs, cats, chickens, horses and a donkey.

In 2007 she got her dog Ella certified through Pet Partners and the two began working with students at Partnership Academy and then at Hillsborough Elementary School, the two locations where she provides professional services.

“I have been pretty amazed at what it does. Why it does? I don’t know,” she said. “I know there are some physically based reasons like petting a dog lowers one’s blood pressure, and I have read that it increases production of a hormone that reduces stress.

Psychologically, Stewart said, she thinks animals make school seem like a kinder, gentler and more compassionate environment.

“I had a student say on her first day when she saw a dog there that it made her feel like it was a place she wanted to be,” she said.

She bemoans the lack of research in this area and hopes to measure the effects she observes beyond the anecdotes she and her volunteers have collected.

“We had a child who would walk down the halls and bounce from one wall to another,” she said. “Walking a dog created an overnight change. We gradually transferred this to walking without the dog.”

News of Stewart’s work spread and she now has 20 volunteers including herself, bringing a total of 24 licensed therapy dogs to Hillsborough, Efland-Cheeks, Pathways, New Hope and Cameron Park elementary schools, A.L. Stanback, Gravelly Hill, and CE Stanford middle schools, Partnership Academy and Triumph Academy.

Maya and her guardian Barbara Paradise have been involved with Pet Pals since the fall of 2011 and spend about 20 minutes with each student.

“We do one on one. It is nothing special. We do belly rubs. They check her teeth and tell me about their dogs. The children who don’t read well, the guidance counselor will have them bring something to read. They all try to teach Maya tricks,” said Paradise, who also visits Stanback.

The students light up when they see Maya. Paradise said, “I have been told that one of the students we meet with doesn’t smile all week and we walk in and he is smiling from ear to ear. The principal said we need to get a house at the school for that dog.”

Tammy Edgar, a veterinarian, and her dog Jake volunteer at Hillsborough Elementary. She too finds it difficult to explain the process.

“It lets every child get to be a star,” she said. “They get to be loved and respected. Jake doesn’t judge them or hurry them. The whole program sets them up for success. During one visit I can see that child soar.”

She also appreciates that students are getting to see the potential in dogs. “If you can teach a new generation how to bring pets into the community and work with them, kids are amazing and dogs are amazing and when you put them together it is magic.”

Jake and Edgar go twice a week and spend two and a half hours each time doing a variety of things such as reading with the first graders. One of their successes involves a fourth-grade student who was good in all subjects except math.

“I would help her with her math and when she got a problem right, she would get to teach Jake a trick,” Edgar said. “We helped keep her attention focused. Jake would send her emails or postcards encouraging her to turn in her homework.”

Gloria Jones is the principal at Stanback, where Pet Pals has worked with 13 students. Stewart is very grateful not only for the support Pet Pals receives from the administration but also from the on-site coordinators. Aviva Scully is the licensed school social worker specialist at Stanback and works with staff and administration to decide who will benefit from the therapy dog visits.

“It is kind of intuitive what we do,” she said. “We might look for a child who may be trying to overcome some feelings of loneliness or develop some more social skills. I know it sounds goofy but dogs are non-judgmental.”

Fourth and fifth graders at Hillsborough Elementary were so affected by the presence of the therapy dogs at their school that they started a Pet Pals club. Its mission is to help shelters and help students understand animals better.

Bradley Stinchocombe, Lizzie Perkins and Malia Miller, all fourth graders, were eager to talk about how they have been making video commercials for the school news aired each morning.

Stinchocombe said, “We teach them how to keep dogs safe.” Perkins said “We want to help the animals since they need a lot of stuff.” The club held a drive at the holidays to gather this stuff for the shelter. Miller said, “Ella listens when I talk to her.”

Another person at Hillsborough Elementary that was greatly moved by Pet Pals is principal Jen Benkovitz. Stewart said, “She so supports the program that she got her own rescued dog, Hobbes, trained and certified and now he periodically comes to school, visiting and reading with the children. His presence has certainly redefined ‘a trip to the principal’s office.”

Stewart is seeking new volunteers to keep up with demand. Though she hopes to have other animals in addition to dogs be a part of Pet Pals, she may have already found a recruiting slogan, courtesy of Noah’s parting thought as he reluctantly left his session with Maya a few weeks ago.

“Dogs are cool.”