Archie Hay visits a classroom on Wednesday to welcome students. Photo: Leila Brown
Archie Hay only comes to work on Wednesdays and is often caught napping in his office, but he isn’t being fired anytime soon. Archie is Jason Hay’s 2-year-old golden retriever and certified therapy dog.
Archie started visiting school in November of last year as the first therapy dog in the district.
He travels around to wherever he is needed.
“He loves ‘good boy,’ and any kind of praise. He is very very sensitive and doesn’t do well when you get on to him,” Jason said.
The Hay family has always wanted to have a therapy dog as well as a golden retriever.
Archie started training when he was 6-months-old for his certification, and it took him six months to finish training. In training, Archie had to do a temperament test which measures their hostility and friendliness around others.
It also tests their impulse to protect the handler. The test could take place in a park full of people doing their daily activities or any busy public area. Not at all dogs pass the temperament check, which is another reason why Archie is perfect for this role.
Archie is not the only furry friend in their household, they have an Australian Shepard named Hollybell and a cat named Bobby.
According to Jason, Archie is a very energetic and active dog and must be exercised often to be properly stimulated. Archie loves playing with his toys. His toys of choice are a tennis ball, rope, chew toys and rawhide. But his favorite toy of all is squeak toys; Archie specifically likes to rip the squeaker out of the toy.
Kelly Hay has given Archie the title of “goober” owing to the fact that Archie is skilled in the art of somersaults. Kelly says that Archie will either do it on purpose or accidentally.
Archie finds that the most comfortable position to chill in is laying on his back with his tongue out. Out of the two, Kelly says that Archie favors her more since she is more laidback.
But Archie’s overall favorite person has to be Hay’s son, Spencer. They have both formed a special bond since the day they met. The Hay family loves their Archie and are proud of the service he does for the district.