Bear is a specially trained therapy dog. He completed his training with Ultimate Canine of Westfield, IN. Ultimate Canine says the following about their therapy dogs:

"Therapy dogs are specially trained to provide comfort and support to people in various tense environments. They can help people feel at ease, improve their mood, relieve anxiety, and remove social barriers. Therapy dogs are highly trained and certified to show their ability to work in stressful environments, ignore distractions and provide therapy to people of different ages and looks and with many different disabilities."

Bear has a primary handler, Mrs. Kuhn and three secondary handlers, Mr. Pennington, Ms. Lowe and Ms. Hayes. Bear and his handlers completed their training on December 13, 2025. He is a full-fledged staff member of Huntington East Middle School.