Isabella Diaz-Mira | Managing Photo Editor

Anyone who has spent time on the WashU campus has heard of Bear and Brookie, the campus comfort dogs. They spend their days sleeping on couches in the DUC, receiving pets outside Olin Library, and even venturing to the Medical Campus on occasion to visit the med students. 

The WUPD Comfort Dogs program began four years ago, when current WashU Police Department Chief Angela Coonce began working at WashU. Prior to that, she worked in North St. Louis and hoped to implement the program there. When she arrived at WashU, she thought that comfort dogs would be equally beneficial in a university environment.

Coonce teamed up with Officer Greg Casem, who had previously suggested bringing comfort dogs to the WashU campus, to develop the program. The two went to Stray Rescue St. Louis, a nonprofit organization that Coonce had previously worked with, to pick out their dogs.

Bear and Brookie were rescued by Stray Rescue a few weeks prior. The two puppies were abandoned in a trash can the week before Christmas, mere hours from freezing to death. Coonce and Casem met the dogs on their first visit to Stray Rescue and fell in love with them immediately. 

“I think we kind of underestimated the impact it would have on campus,” Coonce said. “The dogs have as much of [a] positive impact on our police officers. … We can have a pretty bad day outside of WUPD, and then when we come in and Brookie and Bear are running down the hall, it makes everything better.”

An unexpected impact of Bear and Brookie has been an increase in student contact with WUPD officers. When the dogs first arrived on campus, Coonce and Casem spent 40 minutes crossing Mudd Field, because so many students wanted to pet the dogs.

“There was a student that came up and was talking to Greg in particular and and he was from San Francisco, where Greg was from, and they started just having a genuine conversation … and he said as he walked away, ‘I would have never come up and talked to you without the dog,’” Coonce said.

Even when the dogs are not directly present, officers have seen an increased level of confidence among students when talking to WUPD officers. According to Bear’s handler, Sergeant Jesse Siefert, an interaction usually starts with a student asking an officer about the dogs and leads to a more genuine conversation. 

“We’ve had more students and staff feel more reliable in us and reach out to us during situations and in a timely manner because they have had positive interactions and positive conversations with us,” Siefert said.

When the dogs were first introduced — their first appearance was at Bear’s Den when they were just 12 weeks old — some students were wary. According to Casem, students worried that Bear and Brookie were drug dogs, although the dogs were 17-pound balls of fluff at the time. Once Casem and Siefert explained that Bear and Brookie were WUPD’s new campus comfort dogs, the students “all got up from their table and slowly walked towards Jesse and I — we were about three, four feet apart, and they totally surrounded the dogs and blocked the exit entrance, and Jesse got to me and said ‘OK, we’re gonna have to separate,’” Casem said. 

The students are also the ones who picked out Brookie’s name. While Bear was easy, there were several potential options for Brookie’s name. Once the options had been narrowed down (suggestions included “Millie” for Millbrook, “Franny” for Francis field, and other names from WashU personnel or graduates), the students voted for Brookie, inspired by Brookings Hall.

According to Siefert, a lot of the dogs’ training is desensitization, something that the students help them practice every day. They also have training in deep-pressure therapy, which helps them assist students through anxiety, panic attacks, and other crisis situations.

Bear and Brookie’s favorite campus location is the red chairs at the Knight Center, where they snuggle in and stick their heads through the backs of the bucket chairs. The two dogs also have their own favorite spots to be pet: Bear will roll over on his back to get his belly and chest scratched, but he also has loves being scratched in one spot right by his collar, while Brookie likes students to pet her ears and the top of her back by her tail.

Sometimes, other WUPD dogs can be seen around campus with Bear and Brookie: most notably, Archie and Misty. Archie is a mostly-retired comfort dog who belongs to Coonce and prefers to stay out of the limelight. Misty still works as a comfort dog but spends more time out on patrol, as her handler is a patrol sergeant. 

According to Siefert, the most important thing for students to remember about Bear and Brookie is that they are here for students. 

“We might take them home. We might take care of them. We might have the leash. They might work with the police department. But they are here for your well-being, your positivity. You can have the worst day, the best day, normal day, busy day, slow day, whatever, and they are here for you. If we can assist you in succeeding in your academics or your time here, and we can help make it better, that’s what they’re here for, and that’s why we’re here as well.”

The dogs attend all Well-being Wednesdays sessions, and they can also often be found inside the Comfort Room in the South 40 WUPD station, which is equipped with comfortable couches and fluffy blankets for anyone in need of a quiet place to recharge. Whether students have just taken an awful exam, turned in a 20-page paper, or just need to be cheered up, Bear and Brookie are always around for a cuddle.