Puppy Love: Should the School Adopt a Therapy Dog?

Stress… anxiety… exhaustion… Head-Royce students deal with all this and more on a daily basis. How can our school help improve our mental health so that we can better navigate the rigor of our classes? The answer is dogs. Johns Hopkins Medicine reports, “research has shown that simply petting a dog lowers the stress hormone cortisol, while the social interaction between people and their dogs actually increases levels of the feel-good hormone oxytocin”. Oxytocin is a hormone that has been proven to reduce stress and anxiety. Simply the act of petting a dog gives us this relief.   

Some schools already have therapy dogs. Loyola Marymount University has one named Buster. Students take him out on walks, cuddle with him, and play fetch. Imagine the School having their very own Buster: students throwing tennis balls to him on the field during lunch, cuddling with him before a big exam, or strolling around campus with him. Senior Theo Snoey says, “I think [a therapy dog] would spread a lot of happiness and joy on campus”. Students’ mental health deteriorated during the pandemic and needs to be prioritized now. Adopting a therapy dog would be extremely beneficial to the mental well-being of students.

Let’s say we do get a therapy dog. Who would take care of them? One potential strategy is for an advising to take care of the dog each week. Students can play with them, walk them during free periods, and feed them at lunch. There would be a designated room in the high school building for the dog so that they are always available for comfort. At night, the dog would sleep at a volunteer’s house from the assigned advising. This is just one possible way to take care of the dog. 

Due to the stress relief and mood boost that dogs provide, a therapy dog would greatly help with our students’ mental wellbeing. Therefore, the School should adopt a therapy dog.