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Just out of his organic chemistry exam, and with a physics final yet to come, Harpalpreet Sekhon spent midday Tuesday gently stroking Maly, a 9-year-old German shepherd.</p>
<p>“Stress? Tell me about it,” said Sekhon, a 20-year-old biochemistry major at the University of California San Diego.</p>
<p>Sekhon was one of about 1,000 students expected to attend the Therapy Fluffies event on campus. Approximately 18 trained therapy dogs were brought to UCSD for the session, which has been held quarterly during final exams for three years. It is part of the university’s weeklong “De-Stress Fest.”</p>
<p>“I just left my o-chem final,” Sekhon said. “Yeah, it was stressful. This is calming me down.”
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<p>We have a similar idea here at Smith. Once a semester (and I’m helping to start an org on campus that will make it, as well as other pet-student opportunities, a more regular occurrence), we ask locals to bring their dogs for students to play with and we have some treats for both the humans and the pups. It’s really great :)</p>
<p>So many kids come on CC over winter break and report they miss their pets more than anything else when they leave for college. I think bringing pets around for stress relief is a terrific idea.</p>
<p>S1’s Resident Heads in the dorm (young married couple) are VERY popular because they have such awesome toys (dog and baby) for the students to play with! S is quite fond of the dog.</p>
<p>My S will be one of those, providing he ever gets a CC account;)
When he is stressed out he just lies down next to our golden, or right on him, and they both absolutely LOVE the bonding. Take the dog for a walk? - that’s a different story…</p>