While walking around the LASA campus, students may see two very unusual wellness counselors. The wagging tail or puppy-dog eyes may be deceiving, but these are two trained therapists and important parts of the LASA community.
Therapy dogs work at schools and hospitals to help alleviate stress and provide companionship to those who need it. LASA currently has two furry friends doing such work: Juney, a one-and-a-half-year-old lab and great pyrenees mix, and Mr. Bean, the 1-year-2-month-old black lab.
Therapy dogs have been a tradition at LASA since before switching to the Johnston campus. Wellness counselor Olga Alvarado, Mr. Bean’s owner, explained when the tradition started.
“It’s been years,” Alvarado said. “[It started when] we were in the old building at LBJ campus because Ms. McPherson started bringing her dog,”.
Juney and Mr. Bean are usually in the wellness center, which is located between the 400’s hall and T-Annex. They interact with students during passing periods and when students visit the center during the school day.
“They provide a lot of different types of stimulation for students that may be in crisis,” Alvarado said. “[Students] are able to come to them, and sit with them, lie down with them.”
The dogs are available to assist in any classroom around the campus. Wellness counselor Shannon Cardona helps take the dogs to the rooms of teachers upon request.
“They can always get a hold of us if they need their students to feel a little love and comfort or distraction, and they’re here all day,” Cardona said. “All the teachers need to do is let us know, and we’ll walk them over.”
After checking to make sure none of the students have problems with dogs, the counselors can call Juney and Bean to visit classrooms. Since they are trained in providing support to any stressed students, they are often used on test days.
“If there’s a test, they’ll ask us to send one of them, or they’ll send a student to go get them so the students can have a little bit of puppy love before they start their test,” Cardona said.
Jon Croston, science department chair and Juney’s owner, doesn’t get to see Juney do her work often, but he does see the positive impacts. Croston originally adopted Juney to train her as a therapy dog.
“I see all kinds of people who really get a lot of joy, sometimes peace, or just a better sense of life for the moment with her,” Croston said. “I think she’s doing a lot. When we adopted her, I told my kids, ‘she’s not gonna stay home all the time, she’s gonna have to become a therapy dog and go to school.’”
Juney was certified through Pet Partners of Texas over the summer of 2025. To do so, she completed in-person and online classes before taking a test.
“Basically, it all comes down to like an AP test you have to perform on the day,” Croston said. “She went in, had a test, and had to score well enough to get certified.”
Juney is officially the B-day therapy dog, but often comes in on both A-days and B-days.
“I think it’s really good for her,” Croston said. “Honestly, in the mornings, she wants to come. She won’t leave me alone until I put on her vest, and she knows she’s coming to school. I left her home one day, and she was not happy.”
Mr. Bean, LASA’s other therapy dog, is currently training with the Dog Alliance. He already has experience from working with his mother, Nova, a previous therapy dog at LASA who retired at the end of last year.
“Nova’s temperament was really kind and gentle,” Alvarado said. “Mr. Bean demonstrated that at the very, very beginning as a pup.”
Though Juney and Mr. Bean are known widely, not all students like to interact with them. The LASA Administration makes sure that Alvarado and Cardona are aware of which students are afraid or seriously allergic to dogs.
“We will be given information by the administrators [as] to who has some type of allergy, or phobia, to dogs,” Alvarado said. “We just make sure that we don’t have the dogs in that classroom.
Dog-loving students are welcome to visit Juney and Mr. Bean when they visit the wellness center for a break, and teachers are encouraged to ask for the dogs’ assistance during stressful class days.