Meet Sunny, a 5-year-old golden Labrador retriever who, like her namesake, brings warmth and happiness to students and staff at Alberton School. Her owner is Alberton music teacher Mike Wolfe, who started bringing her to school earlier this year, and it’s been a love affair with the students ever since.

Wolfe sometimes works long ten hour days and didn’t like leaving his furry companion home alone for so long. Though he had friends who looked in on Sunny, he wanted to bring her with him to work. Since she is so good around kids, he decided to get the lab certified as a School Therapy Dog.

Sunny started her training last summer and in about five months she graduated from the Wind River Tails and Trails facility located in Florence, south of Missoula. “A therapy dog is a canine half of a human-dog team used to help bring joy and relief from stress to a multitude of people,” their website said. The facility was founded and is owned by Carrie Hunt.

The program is fairly new said Kennel Coordinator, Kelsey Hay, and was designed by Ally Cowan. In order to get the training and certification, Wolfe paid approximately $1,200 out-of-pocket. This includes insurance through Wind River and so the school is not liable if anything was to happen involving the dog. Therapy dogs are used in a variety of situations including in courtrooms, nursing homes and in this case, with school counselors.

In order to get certified, dogs must have a naturally friendly and stable temperament, handle stress well and crave attention. There is no specific breed of dog that makes for a good therapy animal, said Hay rather, it’s “more about the individual dog. We are looking for a mellow, calm energy with the confidence to handle startling situations or noises with grace.”

These are characteristics found in Sunny, who greets students in the morning as they get off the bus, “she likes everybody and everyone likes her,” said Wolfe, who car pools from Missoula. “Sunny comes with us every day, just like everyone else. She’s even got her picture in the school year book under the staff section.”

During training, the dog and its handler work together in private lessons and master skills necessary to graduate the program. There are three separate assessments prior to graduating, Temperament Assessment; the AKC Canine Good Citizen Test; and a Final Therapy Dog Exam. Dogs are exposed to a worst-case or high stress scenario and must show that they will be safe when interacting with the public with a “rock-solid temperament and be friendly toward all people.”

They also must be under their handler’s control at all times. The American Kennel Clubs’ CGC test provides a standard of training and behavior that has national recognition as an obedience title. Once teams pass this portion of the program they may begin conducting supervised visits with a trainer. During the final test dogs demonstrate their ability to perform all behaviors in a realistic, high-distraction environment.

“If kids are having a hard time, Sunny is a calming presence,” he said. “One time a student had completely shut down and Sunny came out and she started petting her and talked about her own dogs. Within a few minutes the student started working again. It was an awesome experience.”

Alberton School Mental Health and Behavioral Specialist, Josie Johnson, said students tell her that Sunny makes their day when she greets them in the mornings.

“We’re excited to have Sunny as a teammate,” Johnson said. “We’ve seen the benefit she brings to all the students with her calm and loving energy.”

At school, Sunny gets to go out to recess with the students two or three times a day and plays Frisbee, fetch and tug-of-war, “she knows when she’s at work and in the evening she’s different and knows it’s time off,” Wolfe said.