Meet the therapy dog having a 'paws-itive' impact on D.C. Area graduate students

From the moment I walk in the front door there are smiles on people's faces when they see Alan walk in. He really does bring a lot of joy here. That's a good boy. Where are we off to? Alan is here! I think it's the joy that people convey when they meet Alan for the first time. I tell them he's a golden retriever, that he's three years old, and they just think he's wonderful. Yes, that's good. My family got involved with Canine Companions back in 2010. My oldest daughter was 12. We had lost our family dog recently, and we were looking for sort of a family service project, a way to give back. So we started raising puppies for Canine Companions. Now these are for service dog puppies, and there's a difference between service dogs and therapy dogs, and that's important to know. So Alan was the sixth service dog that we raised, and when he didn't make it as a service dog because he got an injury very, very late in his training, his professional training. You're welcome to come say hi. He was adopted back by the other couple that we had co-raised him with, and they decided that he still needed a job and got him certified as a therapy dog. and I thought I would like to be involved in that as well with him still because I had raised him from a puppy and so I got certified as a therapy dog handler and now bring him to events here and some at my church as well. The lives of the graduate students here are stressful. We have a lot of students that are maybe far away from home either internationally or just simply here in the United States and a dog in that environment is it can be a really lovely thing. I think it's a good opportunity for the students to be able to just set aside for a moment the assignments and the deadlines and things that they're doing. Big stretch! And really just come and focus on comfort and Alan's really good at that.