New Hampshire

Give Back NH – Assistance Canine Training Services

Published

2 years ago

July 6, 2024

Give Back NH – Assistance Canine Training Services

Every other week on NHPR, we like to highlight a local non-profit that’s providing a great service for the Granite State. On this week’s episode of Give Back New Hampshire, our focus is on Assistance Canine Training Services.

Founded in 2007, Assistance Canine Training Services trains service dogs for people with mobility disabilities and facility dogs for professionals using animal assisted therapy.

Assistance Canine Training Services

One of the dogs trained by Assistance Canine Training Services.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Kathy Metz: I’m Kathy Metz, director of operations here at Assistance Canine Training Services.

Kelly Brown: I’m Kelly Brown. I hold the role of executive director of Assistance Canine Training Services, but I’m also a volunteer puppy raiser and a client. I have one of our facility dogs.

Kathy Metz: Our mission is to raise, train and place service and facility dogs. So our service dogs are for mobility, people who have challenges walking, many of whom are in wheelchairs or use scooters. And also our facility dogs go with professionals who utilize them in animal assisted therapy – teachers, therapists, occupational therapists, counselors, anyone who can utilize a dog in a therapeutic way for their patients or those they serve.

Kelly Brown: I speak more to the facility dog front. Our service dogs are wonderful and they work with one person. They provide a service or multiple services for a person in need. The facility dogs are just a little bit different in that they work with an able bodied human being. We have several dogs at different hospitals, people who are going through cancer treatments. They go in for their cancer treatment and there’s a dog there just to provide comfort and support while they’re there. As a schoolteacher, I have one in my general education classroom, and the dog is there all the time. He’s there every day.

Kathy Metz: Most of our puppies come to us at eight weeks old. Whether they come from a breeder or another organization, starting from the time they’re born, they get what we call enrichment, constant handling, constant exposure to different stimulus, different sounds, everything that get them comfortable with their world and make sure that they’re ready to start working and start training.

Connie: Hi, my name is Connie and my husband, Mike and I are volunteers with the ACTS organization here locally, and we have raised one of the dogs for the organization. His name is Hickory. We had him a total of about two and a half years. So Hickory is no longer with us. He’s been placed. And so now we help out as an auntie and uncle.

Mike: Hickory was our first dog when we moved up here from Pennsylvania a couple of years ago. We saw in the newspaper that ACTS had a nice article, and they were looking for puppy raisers and said, yeah, maybe we might make good puppy raisers. From my perspective, the most rewarding part is knowing what the dog is doing for an individual.

Connie: It’s a lot of fun to raise the dogs. A lot of people ask us, isn’t it difficult to let the dog go, especially when you’ve had them for a couple of years? And it is. And we went into this realizing that we had a job to do. And in our case, Hickory had a job to do. And I say if we both did our job correctly or all three of us, then the magic happens. And that’s exactly what happened with Hickory.

Robin Crocker: I’m Robin Crocker, I’m board chair, and I’m formerly the director of canine development, retired from that position. I still do a lot of work advising and working with training of the dogs. The people who work with the dogs are so dedicated, and the clients are so amazing, and the work that the dogs do with the client is just heartwarming. And I can’t step away. I just keep coming back.

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New Hampshire

New Hampshire employment law in 2026 – NH Business Review

Published

2 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

New Hampshire employment law in 2026 – NH Business Review

What employers are getting wrong, and how to fix it before it becomes a claim

New Hampshire’s employment law landscape heading into 2026 may not be dramatically different from last year, but the real risks lie in implementation missteps. From the initial setting of wages, to calculating and distributing wages, employers will likely find a specific statute and/or labor regulation governing the transaction. Failure to follow these detailed wage and hour laws can result in significant back wages and other penalties being imposed by the state or federal Department of Labor following an audit. Fortunately, however, this area of employment law is relatively easy to master, once you are familiar with the basics.

Notice compliance

One of the most common pitfalls for employers in New Hampshire is misunderstanding the wage and hour notice requirements under RSA 275 and the related New Hampshire Department of Labor Administrative Rules.

At the time of hire, employers must notify employees in writing of their rate of pay and the day and place of payment. This notice is traditionally delivered to employees by way of an offer letter or some sort of “New Hire Rate of Pay” form. (A sample form is available from the New Hampshire Department of Labor website.) What surprises most employers, however, is that Lab. 803.03(f)(6) also requires employers to request and obtain their employees’ signatures on this written notification of wages, and employers must keep a copy of the signed written notification of wages on file. Further, employers must notify employees in writing during the course of employment of any changes to wages or day of pay prior to such changes taking effect, and the employer must obtain the employee’s signature on this subsequent notification as well. (See RSA 275:49; Lab. 803.03.)

Employers are further required to notify employees in writing, or through a posted notice maintained in a place accessible to employees, of:

• employment practices and policies with regard to vacation pay, sick leave and other fringe benefits.

• deductions made from the employee’s payroll check, for each period such deductions are made.

• information regarding the deductions allowed from wage payments under state law. (RSA 275:49; Lab. 803.03.)

Policies regarding vacation and sick leave should inform employees whether or not the employer will “cash out” unused time at year end or at the end of employment, and if so, under what terms. Again, if any changes are made to vacation pay, sick leave and other fringe benefits during the course of employment (all of which are considered “wages” under New Hampshire law), employers must request and obtain their employees’ signatures on the written notification of the change, and must keep a copy of the signed form on file. (Lab. 803.03.) Importantly, notification by way of pay stub alone is not sufficient, and, these requirements apply to both increases and decreases in pay.

Two-hour minimum (reporting pay)

Another frequently overlooked obligation is New Hampshire’s two-hour minimum reporting pay requirement. Under RSA 275:43-a, non-exempt employees who report to work but are sent home early must generally be paid for at least two hours. Weather-related closures, client cancellations or operational slowdown days can trigger this rule. Employers should also note that the New Hampshire Department of Labor currently applies this law to remote-based employees. Consequently, employees who “report to work” at an employer’s request from a home office may likewise have a right to two hours of pay, depending on the circumstances.

Salaried vs. hourly employees

Misclassification of employees as exempt from overtime remains a significant source of compliance exposure. The position’s job duties — not the titles or label such as “salaried” — determine whether an employee qualifies for an overtime exemption.

Employers, particularly in nonprofits, health care and small businesses, unintentionally misapply exempt classifications to roles such as administrative staff, office managers, executive assistants, program coordinators or hybrid jobs that involve significant non-exempt tasks. Over time, as organizational needs evolve and employees take on broader responsibilities, job duties can drift outside of an exemption’s scope.

Best practice is to periodically review job descriptions and actual job duties to ensure continued compliance with exemption criteria, particularly following any significant restructuring or job redesigns.

Peg O’Brien is chair of McLane Middleton’s Employment Law Practice Group. She can be reached at margaret.o’brien@mclane.com.

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New Hampshire

New photo released in unsolved 1997 homicide of a N.H. woman

Published

14 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

New photo released in unsolved 1997 homicide of a N.H. woman

Local News

“Our family wants to know what happened, who did this and why,” said the family of the victim.

A new photo has been released of the victim in a nearly 30-year-long unsolved murder case, in the hope of finding any new potential witnesses in the cold case, New Hampshire officials said.

“Our family wants to know what happened, who did this and why,” the family of Rosalie Miller said in a press release. “We miss her and want to give her peace.”

Miller was last seen on December 8, 1996 at her apartment in Manchester. At the time of her disappearance, Miller had plans on meeting friends in the Auburn, New Hampshire area, officials said.

Her body was found on January 20, 1997 in a partially wooded spot on a residential lot along the Londonderry Turnpike in Auburn, officials said in the release.

The autopsy report declared Miller’s death a homicide by asphyxiation due to ligature strangulation, N.H. officials wrote.

As part of a new effort to garner public help with the case, an “uncirculated” photo of Miller, 36, is being distributed “in hopes it may jog the memory of someone who saw or spoke with her in the winter of 1996,” Attorney General John M. Formella and New Hampshire State Police Colonel Mark B. Hall announced on behalf of the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit in a joint press release.

Investigators are especially hoping to talk to anyone who was in contact with Miller in December of 1996 or anyone “who may have seen her in the vicinity of the Londonderry Turnpike in Auburn during that time,” officials said in the release.

The newly released photo of Rosalie Miller, 36, who was strangled to death nearly 30 years ago. – Attorney General John M. Formella and New Hampshire State Police Colonel Mark B. Hall

“We are releasing this new photograph today because we believe someone out there has information, perhaps a detail they thought was insignificant at the time, that could be the key to solving this case and bringing justice for Rosalie and those who loved her,” Senior Assistant Attorney General R. Christopher Knowles, New Hampshire Cold Case Unit Chief said in the release.

The New Hampshire Cold Case Unit encourages anyone with any amount of information to contact the group at [email protected] or (603) 271-2663.