Therapy dogs may help students fight stress

TORONTO: Spending some time with dogs can help boost wellness among stressed out students, a study has found. Therapy dog sessions for stressedout students are an increasingly popular offering at North American universities. “Therapy dog sessions are becoming more popular on university campuses, but there has been surprisingly little research on how much attending a single drop-in therapy dog session actually helps students,” said Emma Ward-Griffin, research assistant at University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada. “Our findings suggest that therapy dog sessions have a measurable, positive effect on the wellbeing of university students, particularly on stress reduction and feelings of negativity,” said Ward-Griffin.