Petition
Full-time Therapy Dog on Campus
Category: University Petition
Voting closed
69
Votes
Therapy dogs have been proven to have a positive effect on all students. Psychological research has found that there is a significant increase in positive emotions, and reduction in feelings of loneliness, anxiety, stress, and homesickness. Therapy dogs produce an increase in optimism, make students feel more socially connected and generally happier.
St. Mary’s needs a full-time Therapy dog on staff.
References:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/canine-corner/202311/therapy-dogs-comfort-regardless-of-gender-or-sexual-identity
Comments
Across studies, including randomized controlled trials, having students interact with therapy dogs has been shown to yield a number of favorable outcomes. This includes but is not limited to a reduction in stress (Barker et al., 2016; Pendry and Vandagriff, 2019; Quintana et al., 2019), homesickness (Binfet and Passmore, 2016), self-esteem (Muckle and Lasikiewicz, 2017), and anxiety (Kivlen et al., 2022) and a corresponding boost to happiness (Ward-Griffin et al., 2018; Sokal and Martin; 2021; Sokal et al., 2021), positive affect (Peel et al., 2023); and perception of connectedness to the campus community (Binfet et al., 2022a). That is, we see evidence of a reduction in self-reports of ill-being and a corresponding boost in self-reports in varied indicators of social and emotional well-being. Certainly, there have been calls to increase the methodological rigor of studies assessing the effects of interacting with therapy dog-handler teams (see Rodriguez et al., 2023); however, collective findings across studies, attest to several well-being benefits arising from such interactions (e.g., Crossman et al., 2015; Barker et al., 2016; Binfet et al., 2018; Pendry et al., 2020).
100% needed for our uni. So many people need something simple yet loving to be in our community to help one another
Best idea ever
Feedback from today - “This is exactly what I needed” “I needed this during exam times” “This is what would keep me going” “Chester has added the biggest smile on my face” Honestly walking around with Chester was what I needed today. Everyone I walked past had a smile and everyone was asking where he would be stationed. Great experience and definitely needs to go through!