Someone You Should Know: Beau the daycare dog

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - When most kids walk into their daycare, they look forward to toys, books, and snack time.

But the children and staff at Truks-N-Trykes Nursery Care & Prep look forward to Beau.

“Beau is a therapy dog in training that we have here at our centers,” said Bri McCarty, owner of Truks-N-Trykes Nursery Care & Prep.

McCarty was looking for a way to boost the mood of both her staff and kids when the four-legged solution came bounding up to her.

“We were talking with our managers about what we could do to recruit staff and directors,” said McCarty. “A dad actually brought in their English hero, and the dog was playing with the kids, and the kids really seem to gravitate towards it. And I kind of had this epiphany moment of, ‘Okay, maybe we do need a daycare dog.’ So I started doing some research about therapy dogs in daycares and family dogs in schools, and it was actually a lot of stuff that showed that it was a great idea to have a dog in the daycare.”

While Beau is still in training, he spends much of his time in the office with Bri, but his door is always open, and he’s eager to lend a helping paw.

“He sleeps most of the time, but if we have a kiddo who is kind of struggling to decompress or to be able to verbalize things, what we’ll do is we’ll have a kiddo either come back or we bring Beau to them, and then they can kind of have that moment. Literally just petting a dog releases plenty of endorphins where then it can deescalate a situation. You’ll see the kid go from extremely frustrated to extremely happy in a matter of seconds,” McCarty said.

In a time where childcare is a chaotic industry, Bri feels grateful to be able to have an alternative way to help those in her centers who are having a “ruff” day.

“Goes along with what we do and we always want to innovate. We always want to take whatever people are doing, and then we want to level it up and make sure that we’re providing a great environment for the kids, the parents and the staff. And Beau was just kind of that cherry on top that made it great for all of us,” McCarty said.

Beau is still in training but is excited to continue helping students and staff at the daycares.

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