Puppies make everything better.  Boulder Creek Academy, a therapeutic boarding school located in beautiful North Idaho, has been the lucky recipients of their 3rd litter of puppies to foster since the COVID-19 pandemic began. 

Boulder Creek Academy is helping  Second Chance K-9 Ranch, a non-profit local animal shelter, socialize and train pets that were not adoptable.  Animal programs manager, at Boulder Creek, Troi Morris works closely with the shelter to choose dogs that would be appropriate for the students at the therapeutic boarding school.

The students interested in being a part of this program are enrolled in the dog program for the semester.  They go through a specific curriculum designed to teach the dog and the student how to read social cues, and learn to trust each other. By students taking on the responsibility of caring for, training, socializing and helping to find the dogs their forever families and homes.  It’s a win-win for both the dogs and the students.  

Troi shares about how this puppy opportunity came to be. “Everyone was adopting pets during this time that people were being asked to stay home, but the dogs that were about to have puppies were not able to be taken due to the rules for spaying and neutering, this is where we came in!”

Boulder Creek Academy had the physical space to help the mommas have their puppies in a safe environment. The students got to learn about health care of the dogs and see first-hand why the Spay and Neuter program is so important. “Puppy wranglers” as Troi called them, learned the proper way to handle the individual puppies and would help with the visitation of the puppies by others on campus.  Students, faculty, and staff all enjoyed the interactions of the puppies, whether it was up at the kennel, or puppies being brought into someone’s office.  Puppies made it better!

“The puppy experience brought a bright window of joy to the entire campus!” Many thanks to Troi for helping to facilitate this amazing opportunity.

About Boulder Creek Academy

At Boulder Creek Academy, students rediscover their academic and social confidence. The key to our success is that we reignite our students’ belief in themselves by utilizing time-tested and proven methods. Students begin to experience academic achievement, regain self-esteem, learn to embrace their uniqueness and become capable learners who are confident in themselves. Each day at Boulder Creek Academy is purposefully designed to maximize experiences that allow students to practice social skills, improve self-worth, and develop a healthy identity, benefit from therapeutic learning and to have fun.

Boulder Creek Academy has been creating a therapeutic learning environment for high school students ages 14-18 with anxiety, depression, untapped academic potential, interpersonal relationship difficulties, limited executive function skills and overlooked strengths and talents for more than 25 years.