Back by popular demand, we will once again welcome therapy dogs in the Redpath Library Building. The dogs will visit us on Tuesday, April 15th from noon-2pm.
Come to meet people (who are just as stressed out as you are, btw) and engage a bit of collective ooh-ing and ahh-ing over these gorgeous beasts, but also come for the anti-stress benefits that result from interaction with animals. The benefits run deep: check out this study that found that contact with a cat or dog led to a drop in blood pressure for male and female college students. The hypothesis was that there would be differences between the way the male and female students reacted to a dog versus a cat. However, not only was there a correlation between handling cat or dog and a drop in blood pressure, but whether the animal was a cat or a dog did not matter. Everybody wins: female students, male students, cats, and dogs! (Also: does this mean we can finally put the age old cats versus dogs debate to rest?)
Somervill, J. W., Kruglikova, Y. A., Robertson, R. L., Hanson, L. M., & MacLin, O. H. (2008). Physiological responses by college students to a dog and a cat: Implications for pet therapy. North American Journal of Psychology, 10, 3, 519-528.