MARIETTA, Ga. — Among the pitter-patter of little feet, a pair of paws works the carpool line to help greet A.L. Burruss Elementary students as they walk in.
Barney, a two-year-old English Black Lab, is a crisis response dog. Little hands cover his gentle, slow-moving body as students pet, hug and say hello to the well-trained pup.
Barney's purpose is to de-escalate a crisis in kids by roaming the halls of Marietta City Schools with his handler, Officer Paul Hill.
“A crisis can be anywhere from a simple temper tantrum to a student that’s destroying a room, yelling and screaming,” Officer Hill said.
It could also be a warm start to a tough day. During carpool, Barney calmed a crying Kindergarten-age boy who didn’t want to leave his mom.
“I want someone to walk me to my class,” the Kindergartener cried.
“OK, we can walk you to your class,” Officer Hill said.
He snapped on a second leash, handed it to the boy and commanded Barney to walk. The dog moseyed into action and escorted the boy to class tear-free.
Officer Hill said the magic of Barney is his ability to de-escalate the big feelings of little people, something that on his own is tricky and time-consuming.
“When it comes to de-escalating children, we either talk to them or we restrain them, which nobody wants to do. That’s it. That’s all we got,” Officer Hill said.
Unwilling to accept those were the only two options, Officer Hill started looking for other solutions.
He found one in a news story about a crisis response dog working at a school in Wisconsin. So, he called up the school resource officer in the story.
“We spoke for an hour and a half about what he did, how he’s doing it, how he got to where he was,” Officer Hill said.
It jumpstarted his own journey to find a crisis response canine for Marietta City Schools. After years of looking and training, he finally found Barney through Assistance Dogs of the West.
“Speed dating with dogs is basically what I did,” Officer Hill said.
Drawn to his slow movements and gentle nature, Officer Hill picked Barney out of the litter.
“Even when I tell him “Down,” he does it very, very slowly. He always does this downward dog stretch,” Officer Hill said. “Not only does it put the kids at ease, but it also gives me time to talk to the students and figure out what’s wrong. A lot of times, if they believe that if Barney trusts me, then maybe they can trust me, too.”
Barney trained for two years in Santa Fe, New Mexico, before being ready for the school district. Officer Hill also had to certify as a K-9 handler.
So far this school year, Barney has helped with about six to seven weekly de-escalations. Officer Hill says what would typically take him two hours; Barney does in seven minutes.
“Barney has the ability to do things that no human can do,” he said.
Along with his school training, Barney is trained to help with child forensic interviews and courtroom work.
“When these students have to go to court, he has a command where he goes up under the witness stand. The whole time they’re testifying, he’s up on the stand with them,” Officer Hill said.
Between the training and travel, it cost $16,000 to bring Barney to Georgia. The school district pays for the daily overtime costs required by federal law, and the city bought the K-9 patrol car, but the community raised the rest of the money.
The community was so supportive it initially pooled $42,000. All the fundraising is done through the Marietta School Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the schools. They’re selling miniature stuffed Barney replicas to raise money for his continued training and care.
Officer Hill says the investment has paid off.
“Whether it’s something small or a major crisis, he can do it a lot better [than humans] because he’s so non-judgmental and he doesn’t care who you are, what you look like. He simply loves everyone,” Officer Hill said.