Bryan Elementary’s Boone the facility dog becomes school favorite

Before the first bell at Bryan Elementary, students are already lining up near the cafeteria for a different kind of morning check-in: whether they can pet Boone.

Boone, a 1.5-year-old golden retriever, has been working at the Coeur d’Alene school for about two months as a facility dog, and he has quickly become part of the daily routine on the campus at 802 Harrison Avenue. The question hanging over his arrival is not whether he is popular. It is what problem he is there to help solve.

At Bryan, Boone is meant to do more than generate smiles. District materials say facility dogs are used to support students’ emotional and social well-being, and that role matters in an elementary building where children can arrive anxious, overstimulated or overwhelmed before class even begins. The real measure of Boone’s value will not be how many students want to pet him, but whether staff see calmer transitions, fewer morning struggles and more students ready to settle into instruction.

Coeur d’Alene Public Schools has spent years building that model. The district says its current facility-dog program, CDA Schools: Humane Connection, was piloted in 2019 by mental health counselor Erin Duncan and Blue at Winton Elementary. By late 2022, the district had formed a facility-dog policy and a K-9 committee to oversee the program, signaling that the work had moved beyond novelty and into school operations. District materials say the dogs are vetted and carry therapy-animal certification through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs.

Boone joins a roster that has included Blue, Lulu, Journey and Charlie. Bryan itself formally welcomed another team, Shanie Mantz and Cooper, on Dec. 9, 2024, underscoring how central the campus has become to the district’s facility-dog efforts.

The need is not abstract. Bryan Elementary is a Title I school serving kindergarten through fifth grade, with spring enrollment listed at 391 students on the Idaho Report Card. The school’s student body includes 54% low-income students, 16% students with disabilities and 4% English learners, a mix that makes social-emotional support especially relevant in the day-to-day life of the building.

Research reviews on therapy dogs in schools have found perceived benefits in social, emotional, behavioral and learning engagement. At Bryan, Boone is now part of that test in real time: whether a calm greeting near the cafeteria can help students walk into the school day with less tension and more connection.