A few years ago my friend said they were going to train their dog Qian (who had previously been my family's dog, but since our old girl didn't take so well to a younger pup, we gave him to a family who could give him all the attention he needed without another dog interfering) to be a therapy dog .

Every semester around finals the campus brings in therapy dogs to the school library and I'm reminded of Qian.  They have lots of other things too to help with finals stress relief-including a massage therapist who will give you a free ten minute massage, coloring, puzzles (which to me only increase the stress), and many other activities.  But the most popular by far is the therapy dogs.

And who can really blame us?  College life is generally pretty starved of any potential to have pets of your own, and you don't see them around campus all that often, so put a furry friend in front of us and we're bound to overreact a little.  

Regardless, I've developed a bit of a curiosity about therapy dogs and their role.  I used to think they were just dogs that walked around giving comfort to those in hospitals.  Obviously that idea was revised when I started seeing therapy dogs pop up during finals at college, but I still didn't have a clear idea of their scope.

It turns out, after doing some reading, particularly on the Therapy Dogs United website, that they are able to do and visit a lot more places than I would've thought of.  They can help kids learn to read since kids don't feel pressured when reading aloud, so their able to figure out the sounds at their own pace and without getting anxious-how cool is that?  And I knew they reduced anxiety from personal experience, but they reduce blood pressure and promote healing?  Dogs seem to be their own walking medicine.   Can't look forward enough to seeing them again at the end of this semester.