CHENEY, Wash. — Every time an Eastern Washington student athlete enters the athletic training room for treatment, they are greeted by a friendly face and a wagging tail.
Queso, a 21-month-old labrador and golden retriever mix works as a therapy dog in the EWU athletic training department.
Queso belongs to head athletic trainer Hailey Haukeli, who got Queso when she was just a puppy, but right before basketball season began in Cheney.
"I was sneaking her in the athletic training room during the day trying to take care of her while she was still at that puppy stage, but I stopped bringing her in because she was not legally allowed to be in the athletic training room. The athletes became really fond of her and were always asking me where Queso was," Haukeli said.
This began the process of making Queso a therapy dog to keep her in the training room permanently. The movement was started by the student athletes themselves.
"My teammate and I went and spoke with the administration about what it meant to have Queso here. We never thought she would get the scholarhip and the training she deserved, but the administration jumped on board with it and thought she would be a great addition," EWU junior tennis player Drew Dillon said.
"Admin reached out to me and suggested the idea and that they would pay for the therapy dog training," Haukeli said.
After eight months of rigorous training at Unleashed Academy in Spokane, Queso became a certified therapy dog.
"Now she is part of the Eagle family," Dillon said.
"She gets to be here everyday and make people happy and help our athletes through the day and I think that's the most important thing. Our athletes are people first and I think we forget that sometimes, so when they come in and see her and it brightens their day, that helps everybody," Haukeli said.
Now Queso is always there in the EWU training room to help student athletes through their treatments for various ailments.
"I think she helps a lot for the mental piece of it, not only having the athletic trainer there for you, but knowing that Queso is there too if you need snuggles, cuddles or anything like that, she is there," Haukeli said.
"It's easy to come in and see a little piece of no stress at all," Dillon said.
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