It’s midterm season and students stress levels are continually increasing with each essay and exam they have. Students put so much pressure on themselves to do well in school that it creates increased stress and anxiety levels.
With everything going on, students need an outlet to be able to destress and relax. Both Western University and Fanshawe College offer comforting events on campus for students to unwind and the most popular event offered is therapy dogs.
The Associate Director of Transition, Leadership and Enrichment Programs at Western University, Leslie Duncan explains what this event entails, “The St. John Therapy Dog program is a program all ran with volunteers and so they are volunteer trained dogs as well as volunteer handlers.”
The dogs come to campus to interact with students creating a human-animal bond that some students miss from home. Not only is this event uplifting, but it also offers numerous benefits such as, lessening depression, decreasing loneliness, reducing anxiety and increasing self-esteem.
All the dogs must undergo a screening and certification test to be labelled a therapy dog. Once they have the certification, the dogs create an event like no other. FSU Advocacy and Communications Coordinator, Jahmoyia Smith has been to all the therapy dog events Fanshawe has offered and maintains that it is her very favourite.
“Oh wow, it’s breathtaking! It’s like a different connection, it’s always good when you can connect with another human being but when you can connect with an animal, especially a dog, it’s just beautiful to see and to see how they react to different types of dogs.”
Western Universities “Therapy Dogs: Destress Event” takes place this Wednesday October 4th at the UCC.
