Several universities are helping some students relieve exam stress by providing scheduled play time with dogs.
Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. is one of several U.S. schools participating in this type of program.
“It just seems to allow the students a chance to relax and a lot of them miss their pets from home, so it’s nice for them to be able to spend a few minutes with a dog,” said Jared Morrison, co-ordinator of Student Involvement for Programming at Lynn University.
Representatives from a local therapy dog organization bring in dogs during the school’s six-day exam period from Thursday to Tuesday, she said.
Third-year multimedia journalism student Stephen Proano-Amaya participated in the program, and said spending time with the dog helped relieve exam stress.
“The next day [after playing with the dogs] I had an exam, I didn’t feel so pressured or anything, I just went it and took the exam and did pretty well,” he said.
“It’s nice to just forget about things for 15-20 minutes and just be able to throw a ball around with a dog.”
Playing with dogs may provide real physical and mental health benefits, according to Sandy Whitmer, licensed psychotherapist at the university’s counselling centre..
“We did some before and after stress scales with the students that came to interact with the therapy dogs and 100 per cent of them reported a decreased amount of stress they felt after interacting with the therapy dogs,” Whitmer said.
“Research has proven that petting, touching, and talking to animals lowers blood pressure, relieves stress, and eases depression.”
University of Ottawa professor Audrey Giles holds regular office hours with her border collie mix, Tundra. Tundra is a certified therapy dog through the Therapeutic Paws of Canada Organization, according to Giles.
Giles allows students to play with Tundra during the regular academic year.
She said she started working with Health Services and the Student Academic Success Service to launch a pet therapy initiative at the university.
“Every other week during the regular academic year Tundra comes in for an hour and a half and students can just drop by and hang out with her,” Giles said.
“There are students who come every time she’s there. Some stay for five minutes, some stay for the entire hour and a half.”
Giles said with the amount of interest she has received, she hopes to have more dogs come at the university so more office hours can be held, along with different sizes of dogs.
“Tundra has a Twitter account, the university advertises heavily, and Tundra has been invited to more events than I have ever been invited to,” Giles said.
“Her office hours are far busier than mine are.”
