With finals week approaching, stress levels among students are on the rise.
To help alleviate student anxiety, the Wellness Center is hosting “Wagging Tail Tuesday” at the Campbell Library for the next two weeks, with the first happening on Tuesday, April 23 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Through their work with the Schreiber Family Pet Therapy Program, the Wellness Center has been placing therapy dogs with their handlers in one of the busiest buildings on campus during finals to help students unwind and relax.
Michele Pich is the department chair and assistant director of the Shreiber Family Pet Therapy Program. She says the goal of placing the therapy dogs in the library is to help studying students momentarily forget about their stressors with the help of some furry friends.
“Generally, therapy dogs are good for de-escalating stress. Students have a lot of exams coming up and final projects and stress is pretty high, so to be able to have a little bit of a brief reprieve and a reminder to smile sometimes helps people be able to have that stamina to get through what they’re facing at the end of the semester,” Pich said.
One of the first therapy dogs at Wagging Tail Tuesday was Cinder, a Red Fox Labrador. Many students came up to her, with some even lying on the floor with Cinder in the middle of the library.
During a very busy time for many students, interacting with therapy dogs can provide a temporary distraction from the stressors that come to students at the end of semesters. For students like Rachel Sampson, briefly petting Cinder was like a sigh of relief.
“I needed that before finals week,” Sampson said.
Research has shown that petting a dog can in fact relieve stress. The simple act of petting the animals lowers the levels of the stress hormone cortisol and increases levels of the feel-good hormone oxytocin.
While many students tend to internalize their stress and don’t feel the need to discuss it, Pich explains that these therapy dogs provide a more casual solution for those issues that may be difficult to talk about.
“We [Shreiber Pet Therapy Program] think of the dogs in some ways as sort of the original fidget toy. The dogs can serve that function by having that tactile interaction with their fur and their unpredictable way that they move and look goofy and kind of lean into those interactions. I think everybody wants to feel needed, loved, and appreciated, and I think by seeing how happy the dogs are to have that interaction helps people feel good,” Pich said. “Also, dogs don’t judge, if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s okay. They’re not going to try to make you.”
The therapy dogs will make their next visit to the library on Tuesday, April 30 from 2 to 3:30 p.m., offering a helping paw to students during the academically trying time of finals week.
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