By Seth Boster
The Gazette
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. 鈥� On an upper level of the Colorado Springs Police Department, the calls never stop. The people here stand before screens displaying maps of the city and other urgent information, and they respond through headsets.
鈥淎re you safe? Are you out of danger?鈥�
鈥淒o you see flames or smoke?鈥�
It鈥檚 another day in the communications center, where 911 calls come in. But it鈥檚 not just any other day.
In come happy, smiling dogs.
鈥淗ello! Oh, you are very cute,鈥� says one between calls, pulling away from her screen to greet Oliver the Labrador retriever.
Others step aside to greet little Maya the Shih Tzu/poodle mix and big Daisy Hope the Newfoundland. There鈥檚 another Newfoundland here, Royce, who beckons all to take a break as he nuzzles up to them.
The Go Team has arrived 鈥� the name of the local nonprofit with a simple mission 鈥渢o offer relief, care and assistance to those in need.鈥�
| MORE: 6 steps to adding a therapy dog to your organization
The team regularly visits assisted living centers and nursing homes, airports and hospitals. The dogs go to schools when counselors call, often following tragedies. They go to sites of other disasters. They were seen around the Boulder King Soopers after the shooting there in 2021, and they were seen around Club Q after the shooting in 2022.
The dogs go to newsrooms, soothing journalists covering such tragedies. And they regularly go to police and fire departments, including this comms center.
Responders here are encouraged to mind their mental health, says Ira Cronin , the department鈥檚 public relations manager. 鈥淭he people calling them are having a really, really bad day, maybe the worst days of their lives, and that can really affect you,鈥� he says. 鈥淭o just be able to pull away and pet a dog, it really means a lot.鈥�
It means a lot to the police chief.
鈥淭hese are the good days,鈥� Adrian Vasquez says, bending down to rub Royce鈥檚 belly.
The Go Team has aimed to brighten days since 2012. That June, as the Waldo Canyon fire raged, Nancy Trepagnier brought golden retrievers Tabor and Snickers to places of displaced people and tired firefighters.
鈥淥ne of the firefighters asked, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 the name of your team?鈥欌�� Trepagnier recalls. 鈥淚 said Go Team.鈥�
She had a previous career dating back to the 1970s in the airline industry, where 鈥淕o Team鈥� referred to a task force rapidly deployed to a crash. Similarly with the dogs, 鈥渨e鈥檙e ready to go whenever we get a call,鈥� Trepagnier says.
They are ready far beyond Colorado Springs. Trepagnier has grown Go Team nationwide.
Dogs were recently on the peripheries of protests in Minneapolis, Trepagnier says. They were there following the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida. Last year, they were there for the Palisades fire in California and there for the catastrophic floods in central Texas.
Across the country more than 1,000 teams are active 鈥� one team being a handler and a dog 鈥� and thousands more have been trained over the years, Trepagnier says. Her nonprofit has been recognized with awards from the Red Cross and American Kennel Club.
The growth has been beyond her wildest expectations, thinking back to the idea born from the Waldo Canyon fire.
All while working in airlines and long before then, Trepagnier had been training dogs for typical obedience and atypical activities (Snickers took to surfing, skateboarding and kayaking, as did Tabor to an extent). But that 2012 fire indeed made Trepagnier think of a team specially trained for therapy.
She put the word out to past clients. Some of those displaced people, those comforted by Tabor and Snickers, got the word as well.
鈥淚 thought it was gonna be this little, tiny thing. I thought that first class might be five people,鈥� Trepagnier says. 鈥淲e had 32 people.鈥�
Around the time of that early training, the Black Forest fire started. It would be another devastating moment 鈥� another moment that brought the Go Team to people in need and brought the nonprofit mission to more eyes.
Deb Galarowicz was one of the first Go Team members.
鈥淎 lot of us were excited about the opportunity,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat was the first I had ever actually heard about being able to do something like that with my own personal dog.鈥�
It was the first she had heard about such specific training for such a specific team, but of course she had heard about therapy dogs.
The idea of dogs as therapeutic might span thousands of years 鈥� somewhere along the way of nomads domesticating wild dogs 鈥� but scientific literature has popularly pointed to 1796 at the York Retreat in England. That asylum sought gentler treatments instead of the day鈥檚 shock and chains. Dogs were noted as helpful.
Their calming effects were also noted by Florence Nightingale, known as the founder of modern nursing for her work in the 1800s. The next century saw another nurse, Elaine Smith, create the first organization of its kind: Therapy Dogs International in 1976.
By then, Trepagnier had come from a family of dog people. They trained and oversaw kennels.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 know it was called therapy dogs,鈥� Trepagnier says. 鈥淚t was just, take the puppies to the old folks home.鈥�
She would see sad, lonely seniors suddenly glow 鈥� as Go Team members see today.
That includes Nicole Sawicki. She brings Oliver to an assisted living center every Saturday.
鈥淥ur favorite lady, she just passed,鈥� Sawicki says. The lady is smiling in pictures with the golden lab, pictures that were sent to distant family who delighted in them. 鈥淛ust knowing that she was at least having 30 minutes of joy,鈥� Sawicki says.
Sawicki has hoped to spread joy in her retirement from the Air Force. The Go Team鈥檚 fellow volunteers have similar military backgrounds. Others were teachers.
鈥淲e all served in some capacity prior to this,鈥� Kimi Musgrove says. 鈥淭his is an opportunity for us to continue to serve.鈥�
They serve, though they like to call themselves 鈥渄opes at the end of the rope.鈥� It鈥檚 the dogs serving, they know.
Musgrove saw her late Newfoundland, Boomer, lower blood pressures of a woman giving birth and another needing dental work. She saw Boomer sit with a man during chemotherapy; the man matched his schedule with Boomer鈥檚 visits.
Boomer would also go to the District Attorney鈥檚 office, where Go Team dogs often go.
鈥淲hen we do victim advocates, the kids might not talk to an adult, but they will tell their story to a dog,鈥� Trepagnier says. 鈥淲e just stand back and let them tell the story. They can tell it to the dog, because the dog is non-judgmental.鈥�
Standing back is key, as it is in other sensitive situations, Trepagnier explains. The focus must be on the person in need, she says, not the person behind the dog.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like I tell people that do our crisis response: You鈥檝e gotta get to the point where you can鈥檛 cry. You鈥檙e the dope at the end of the rope,鈥� she reminds. 鈥淲e can never say, 鈥榃e know how you feel.鈥�
鈥淵ou know,鈥� she continues, 鈥淚 lost my son to cancer, but I can鈥檛 tell another person I know how they feel.鈥�
She knows how she felt that day she was called to bring Tabor and Snickers to people in need during that 2012 fire. It was June 26. It would鈥檝e been her son鈥檚 birthday.
In 2007, after more than two years of battling melanoma, all while going to college and working and volunteering as he loved to do, David died. He was 23.
He should鈥檝e been five years older that day when Trepagnier got that call as the fire raged. It was always a hard day, his birthday.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to go,鈥� Trepagnier says. 鈥淏ut I felt that little tap on my shoulder.鈥�
It鈥檚 what David would have done 鈥� taken the time to help others, like he did at soup kitchens. Yes, David would鈥檝e gone to help alongside Tabor, the golden retriever who was meant to be his therapy dog.
Instead, Tabor would lead the Go Team.
鈥淚 call it David鈥檚 dream,鈥� Trepagnier says of the nonprofit. 鈥淓verybody here has their own reason for doing it. I do it in memory of my son.鈥�
And yes, she does it for all in need.
For people taking emergency calls here at the Police Department. Trepagnier walks around with Royce, her fluffy Newfoundland who nuzzles up to people taking a break. And later he鈥檒l nuzzle up to Trepagnier, a dog鈥檚 service never-ending.
漏 2026 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.).
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