Groton — You don't expect to see a short, plump puppy or a big, snuggly St. Bernard wearing a police uniform and a badge.

But police dogs of all breeds, sizes, colors and levels of fluff were represented Thursday in Mystic, where officers and their four-legged partners came from up and down the East Coast to attend a conference on therapy dogs in law enforcement.

These dogs, unlike their crimefighting, K-9 officer counterparts, don't sniff out bombs or track suspects on the run. Mostly, they lay on the ground and let people pet them.

They're trained as therapy dogs, or comfort dogs, for the benefit of people who have experienced trauma. They're brought to police departments, prisons and courthouses to help people from all walks of life feel more comfortable while working with law enforcement. They work in schools where they help children who have experienced trauma open up and feel more relaxed. And they're flown all over the map to the scenes of horrific tragedies — from mass shootings to bombings — to help first responders and victims alike feel a bit more at ease.

More than 30 therapy and comfort dogs gathered for "Cops and Comfort Dogs," a conference hosted by the Town of Groton Police Department and the UConn Police Department.

Clarence, a 160-pound St. Bernard from Greenfield, Mass., originated the role of a law enforcement therapy dog in New England. Now retired, "Officer Clarence" was helping his owner, Deputy Chief William Gordon, through his own Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in 2012, when 26 students and teachers were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

A friend of Gordon's friend, who is a federal law enforcement officer, went to Sandy Hook and saw how distraught first responders were about the scene they'd encountered in the school. He knew about the work Gordon was doing with Clarence, and asked the duo to come down.

Clarence spent days with first responders in Newtown, laying around and letting himself be petted, occasionally offering up his paw to be held, Gordon said.

"This is really all we do," he said, looking down at Clarence as the dog put his paw on a young boy with Down syndrome who was petting his face. "I just hold the leash and let the human have whatever interaction they need with him."

Gordon said that the goal of bringing in a police comfort dog is usually to help a person get through the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event.

"When a person has just gone through a traumatic event, they experience acute stress and they can get trapped in a cycle of thinking of a traumatic event over and over again. What we do is interject a positive into a negative," Gordon said.

"It's like a bad rainstorm," he said. "You have all these dark clouds but then all of a sudden the dark clouds break, and you see those first rays of sun and a rainbow. You don't remember the black clouds, but you always remember that rainbow. We provide the rainbow."

Most recently, Clarence and Gordon traveled to Washington, D.C., to comfort members of the U.S. Capitol Police, members of Congress and other employees on Capitol Hill following the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Clarence, who is mostly retired now and has been replaced by a younger St. Bernard named "Officer Donut," got a hug and kiss from President Joe Biden.

In Groton, Officer Heather McClellan of the Groton Town Police Department lives and works with the town's own police therapy dog, a yellow lab named Chase.

"These dogs are for our community and for our first responders," McClellan said, noting that Chase provides comfort to victims of crimes as often as she helps firefighters or paramedics.

"The goal is to make connections with our community and to have conversations with them that we might not be able to have without these dogs present," she said. "Whether it's helping victims get through giving their statements or comforting first responders like firefighters, EMS workers and other emergency personnel, who respond to difficult situations, it's an amazing program that has made a huge impact."

Chase was trained through a program called Puppies Behind Bars that gives incarcerated people an opportunity to train police therapy dogs. She joined the Groton Town police in September, moving in with McClellan, who pioneered the therapy dog program in the town.

McClellan helped organize the event Thursday to highlight the work different departments and agencies are doing in their own communities.

In the morning, people at the conference gathered to discuss programs available in their towns and cities that allow dogs to get out into the community and offer their support services. From 1 to 3 p.m., the conference room at the hotel was filled with wagging tales and smiling faces as members of the public were invited in to get to know the dogs.

Folks who came to the event were given "passports" that could be stamped as they made their way through the conference room. Each page featured the name and photo of a different therapy dog, with a spot for the dog's handler's signature. Handlers were also distributing baseball card-style cards with their dog's photo, name and background for kids to collect.

Angela Swift, from New London, brought her 6-year-old son Leandro Garcia and 9-year-old daughter Annelyse Garcia to the conference after looking for something to do to beat the heat on her day off. She said her kids loved meeting all the different dogs, talking with officers, collecting cards and filling out their passports.

Leandro Garcia, proudly wearing a new baseball cap given to him by a New York Police Department officer, said that the best part of the day "was petting all the dogs."

His sister, Annelyse, enjoyed trying to fill out every page in her passport by meeting as many dogs as possible.

"It was fun seeing all the trained dogs doing things like laying down, sitting up and standing up to get a ball. I liked how they gave us books so we could see all the dogs and have the officers sign for them," she said.

Swift said she thought the event was a great way for kids to interact with police officers and for her and her kids to learn more about how police dogs are trained.

"I think it's great to have kids meet law enforcement officers like this and learn from law enforcement," she said.

All of the comfort dogs, like Groton's therapy dog Chase, are used to being surrounded by kids eager to pet them.

McClellan and Chase spend a lot of time in Groton public schools, where Chase visits with students who attend a special program after experiencing traumatic events.

Aly Macadam, a special educator in The Academy program for students in kindergarten and first grade who have survived trauma in Groton Public Schools, said Chase's visits always help her students on their bad days.

Whether Chase is sitting with them while they read, accompanying them to the nurse's office or helping them with occupational therapy, time with Chase "is a calming form of therapy."

"A visit from Chase just changes the whole mood of the day. Oftentimes my students' emotions get the best of them, but if Chase is there they always turn it around," Macadam said.

Chase was joined Thursday by a black lab named Indy, who was also trained through Puppies Behind Bars and now works for the Naugatuck Police Department, a Golden Retriever named Winnie from the Wellesley Police Department in Massachusetts and a fluffy Bernese Mountain Dog named Teddy from Attleboro, Mass.

Teddy's handler, George Brown from Milford-based K9 first responders, a Critical Incident Mental Health Support organization, said he has spent years bringing Teddy to prisons and scenes of traumatic events and has seen over and over again how comfort dogs help.

"The dogs break down people's resistance, their barriers, sometimes even with the toughest people who normally don't reveal their emotions," Brown said.

"Our job is to interfere with a traumatic event, before your brain files it away, and give it a positive pause," he said, smiling and pointing toward Teddy's paws.

t.hartz@theday.com