Therapy dogs visit campus to help students destress from finals

 

WRITTEN BY: GRACE SHALLOW

To quell the stress of finals week, Temple’s Paley Library holds the “Crunch Time Café,” an event for Temple students to “relax and refuel during study days and final exams.”

One event students can participate in is the “Destress with Dogs” session, held in Paley Library’s Lecture Hall, which involves therapy dogs for Temple students to pet and play with.

Abby Sandherr, a junior at Temple studying engineering, agreed destressing was her main incentive for coming to the event.

“Taking a break from studying and not stressing myself out [is my reason for coming],” she said. “When I’m petting the dogs, I’m not thinking about finals.”

Nancy Abdulabbeas, a first-year transfer who is studying bio pre-med, agreed playing with pups helps to take her mind off of her work.

“It’s very relaxing for me… I love dogs,” she said.

Sandherr even said that the dogs being on Temple’s campus reminds her of her two dogs at home, Rocky and Apollo.

“My dogs are very cuddly and comforting like [the therapy dogs,]” she said. “That’s another reason why I come here.”

The dogs present at the event were a part of “Therapy Dogs International” (TDI), an organization based out of North New Jersey that has volunteer dogs and handlers in all 50 states. TDI also supplies therapy dogs at hospitals and nursing homes, as well as a program designed specifically for disaster stress relief. TDI dogs were present at the sites of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Sandy Hooks shooting and more.

“Crunch Time Café” also provides craft-making, coffee and treats as additional ways to help get Temple students’ minds off all the studying they must do for finals. There will be two more “Destress with Dogs” sessions — one on Monday, December 14 from 1-3 and the next the following day at the same time.

   

Therapy dogs like (from left to right; top row, then bottom) Hunter, Tribble, Klaus, Wilson and Dexter will be here to help Temple students take their minds off of finals for a quick study break. Dog-lovers can find the pups in Paley’s lecture hall found on the bottom (ground) floor down the steps. (Photos of dogs courtesy of Temple)