By Ally Jones
La Cueva’s Production Room attendant, Sue Strom, is retiring this year, but her beloved therapy dog is given the chance to continue working at the school and with kids. Cookie, a Golden Retriever, is a working dog here and loves spending her time at the school with a structured schedule. “She very much hates weekends and summers because she’s not here,” Strom said.
Strom has been working at La Cueva for 16 years and has been bringing Cookie as a therapy dog for the past five of them. Strom, who runs the copiers in the school’s Production Room and helps the school in many other ways, originally trained Cookie to be a service dog. But the dog but was not able to fully complete her training. Instead, Cookie went through the certification to be a therapy dog which was much more simple. “It’s nothing more than sit, stay, walk with me, don’t be distracted when there’s other dogs in the room, and be able to hear wheelchairs and walkers and things like that without getting agitated,” Strom said.
Most of Cookie’s day is spent working with and comforting stressed teachers or students. A typical day for the two of them includes greeting students in the hallways in the morning before visiting librarian Gerri Barnhart. “Around 11:30—12 o’clock—we eat lunch. She knows she gets a little container of yogurt, and then gets to lick the applesauce containers,” Strom said while describing their day.
Cookie then goes to assist social worker Brandi Aceves and works with the special education students for the second half of the day before going home. “We see individual students, and Cookie will typically go to them, lay with them,” Aceves said, “Cookie will go, and she’ll walk around, just say hello to the different students.”
Strom and Aceves both agree that therapy dogs have had a great effect on La Cueva students and staff and think that the students at LCHS thoroughly enjoy having a dog on campus. “All the therapy dogs that we’ve ever had here have had a wonderful effect because petting a dog and loving a dog has such a calming effect,” Strom said.
Strom is retiring this year, but she’ll volunteer for Meals on Wheels while bringing Cookie in to offer a therapy dog to those who need it. Cookie will still continue working at the school with Aceves. “She’s very involved in the school, and she loves the administration,” Strom said after describing Cookie’s love for assemblies and the school’s drumline. “She feels very comfortable, and she’s always loved it.”