Michelle Hennessy – News Writer
Farnham’s basement was converted into a room full of wagging tails and playful barks as therapy dogs were brought in to help de-stress students in the run-up to finals.
Denise Zack from Southern’s Counseling Services said therapy dogs were introduced to campus last year and have come in around midterms and finals on four separate occasions.
“The first time we actually had over 200 students and we actually had to have a line at the door because there were that many people,” said Zack. “It’s been pretty well attended since we started it.”
Zack said the biggest obstacle in getting the dogs here is they can be seen as a liability to the university.
“In the past it was an issue because there was a lack of understanding about how well trained the dogs are,” said Zack. “They’ve been so well trained that if a bomb went off they wouldn’t react aggressively, they stay calm and completely tuned to the people around them – they’re very safe.”
The event brought in all sorts of eager hounds, from poodle crosses to bullmastiffs to Labradors, all trained by Sally Sizer, who brought her own corgi named Turbo to Southern.
“If Turbo was human, he’d be a 15 year-old boy surfing the Internet instead of doing his homework, if you know what I mean,” said Sizer as Turbo eyed up Honey, the golden retriever that had just walked in.
She explained how throughout the 12 week training period for therapy dogs, they must learn how to be prodded and poked without reacting.
“Most of it is obedience training and making sure your dog won’t ever act out aggressively,” said Sizer. “They can be in elderly people’s homes or on a children’s ward where often they don’t know how to treat animals so the dogs need to be ready for that.”
While some dogs rolled over and relished in the attention they were getting from students, Sizer had Turbo playing hide-and-seek, pass the treat and modelling with students in a photo opportunity with the dog.
According to Pet Partners, who help train therapy dogs, more than 11,000 therapy animal teams in all 50 states and 13 other countries are now active and attend hospitals, Veteran rehabilitation centers, care homes and more.
Students who attended said they enjoyed having time away from their studies to spend with man’s best friend.
“Students are definitely stressed around finals, I’m a little stressed right now,” said freshman Jhashanae Gayle. “I think things like this help though, the dogs calm people down. I think their cuteness and they’re so playful — that really helps. Southern should try do this more often.”
Jerry Boccia, also a freshman at Southern, said he agrees finals can be a very stressful time for students.
“I heard about it through a friend and decided to come,” said Boccia. “I’m enjoying it, it’s a bit crowded but that’s the only thing I’d say that’s bad about it. Even though it’s only my first semester here at Southern and we don’t have that hard of classes, it’s still a lot of stress at this time, 100 percent.”
Zack said since starting the program, Counseling Services has received positive feedback about the therapy dogs.
“You can tell just by the energy and how positive everyone is here,” said Zack. “Students, in just seeing a dog become so happy and giddy. We also know psychologically that there’s this connection that we have with animals, especially these trained dogs, there’s a sense of connection. We also know that heart-rate, blood pressure and pulse is also dropped down so we know the dogs have a very calming effect with students and people in general.”
