The lasting impact of VT Therapy dogs

I was very surprised when I started doing this. As much as I love dogs, grew up with dogs, had dogs my whole life, I was very still shocked at the positive response from the students and the staff. The mere presence of a dog made people light up and to this very day, even today, we'll see it repeatedly where people just light up and they're so happy to see the dogs. It's a phenomenon of sorts. I think it speaks to our need to connect to nature and connect to other living beings. I think it pulls on something that's built into most of us. Even students that aren't really comfortable or familiar with dogs sometimes grow to be very fond of these dogs through their time and interacting with them because they are such calm, well-socialized animals. It helps reduce stigma around mental health care. We're VT therapy dogs. It does not say good counseling on our sticker, for instance. so we feel like the dogs helps bridge that stigma and you can put a dog with the count face with the counseling center we want this to be very professional I think as a result Virginia Tech and the communities really embrace these animals and when I first started doing this there were really no guidelines on how to bring an animal into on campus into a working position like this we've tried to do it the right way and do it slowly and steadily and and I think it's worked really well I think the dogs serve a community outreach. They help build community more and more at our pawfus hours. People sit around and talk to each other as much as they're talking to the dog. So it's really important to build community. But the foundation of it all is a great dog and a well-trained counselor that has a great relationship with that dog. That's when the good things happen.