In times of stress, students often look to different outlets to manage it. And for many students, having a furry friend to play with is the perfect stress reliever.
On Thursday, Nov. 9, dogs from the River Valley Obedience Centre came to visit students in George Martin Hall to provide joy and stress relief over the break.
“It’s a real win-win-win, because we love sharing them, the dogs love the pets and attention and we’re making the kids happy,” said Sue Wishart, former president of the obedience centre and current dog obedience trainer.
The event, organized by St. Thomas University mental health, included four dogs: Bo, Kegu, a miniature poodle named Joy, and Wishart’s own dog — a year-old corgi named Rowdy, who attends many of the hospital, nursing home and school visitations that the obedience centre offers.
“Rowdy. Little did I know, he was eight weeks old when I named him, he would live up to that,” she said.
Wishart has been involved with the River Valley Obedience Centre since 1993, when she got a new dog and wanted to go into obedience training. She went to the centre, and after being a part of the program she eventually became an instructor and then became president for over 20 years.
Now, her and her two dogs, Rowdy and Rein, take pride in bringing smiles to the community. Including her dogs, there are about 16 dogs in the visitation program.
“We just love sharing our dogs and having other people enjoy their presence like we do every day,” said Wishart. “We enjoy just putting smiles on their faces and bringing back memories of their own dogs.”
For first-year student Alessandra Hernández, spending time with the therapy dogs is exactly what she needed after a semester of missing her dogs back home.
“It’s really difficult to live in residence and just watch people all the time, so watching the dogs and playing with them was pretty good,” she said.
As an international student from Honduras, Hernández was unable to make it home over reading week. With many of the campus buildings empty, seeing the therapy dogs was a welcome break from the mundanity of the break.
“Having the therapy dogs helps me to calm down and to remember how was it back home,” she said.
With assignments and exam preparation coming up, Herná1ndez said the dogs helped her after a stressful week at school.
“After the reading week, I was really stressed and the dogs especially helped me to calm down and to breathe,” she said. “I think they, like, transmit peace and everything.”
Helping people calm down, or even just making people happy, is what the River Valley Obedience Centre dogs are trained to do. Wishart said it is amazing to see the dogs at work. As the dogs often work with vulnerable groups of people, they must understand the situation and adapt.
“Most dogs sense it when we walk through the door. It’s unbelievable how they can be so jumpy and pull-y and whatever, and you walk in that door and it’s like, boom, it’s totally different,” she said.
But for the students, the dogs are allowed to be a bit “rowdier.”
“Rowdy was crawling on the students and they loved it. They just loved it,” said Wishart.
Like the dogs, Wishart also loved getting to know the students as they sat with the animals. One of her favourite parts of the visit was learning about the students’ stories.
“[Students] came in and showed us pictures and talked about their dogs and cuddled with them,” she said. “Just another living being that has unconditional love is what you’re looking for, and these dogs don’t discriminate.”
