Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Law students to reduce stress with loaner dog
“Law students to reduce stress with loaner dog” by Timothy Williams, New York Times The Seattle Times Published 3/26/11 Retrieved 3/30/11 Complete URL: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2014600955_studentsdogs26.html Intended Audience: stressed out students, teachers looking for new ideas to reduce stress Summary: Yale Law School has created an interactive, therapeutic library book, in the form of a real dog. Therapy dogs have been shown to increase happiness, calmness, and general emotional health. The dog will remain in the library and may be “checked out” for half-hour sessions. Key Point: Yale law students may now check out a dog from the library to help reduce their anxiety Relevance: A creative approach to managing anxiety of students in a school well known for its rigorous, intensive program. We should be encouraged to continue to search outside the traditional paper-and-pencil box for effective teaching methods. In addition, we might also be encouraged to look into the emotional well-being of our students in an attempt to help them along in their education.
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LOVE IT!!!
ReplyDeleteI would totally go for a loaner dog. If Barney was a certified therapy dog I would take him everywhere. He definitely makes me fell less stressed.
I wonder if other colleges will follow suite? I am sure Yale Law school produces some stressed out folks but I am sure it's not the only university to do so. I think a 1/2 hour with a dog is better then other options college students might employ to calm stressed nerves.
This is so interesting because up in Seattle the Disrict Attorney's office actually has two state owned dogs that go to court with witnesses and witnesses and are allowed to sit up in the box with people as they testify. Mostly it's for children testifying in abuse cases to calm their nerved, but the dogs are technically available to anyone who needs some stress relief, defendants included.
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of coworkers of mine who are are working on a grant so that similar programs can be adopted here in Washington County. If it's becoming more and more known that dogs or other animals can really help maintain anxiety and stress, I think it's just a matter of time before more and more students petition for therapy animals in schools.
Interesting but...I'm wondering how well a Library is able to function as a dog kennel...they are not quite as easy to take care of as books.
ReplyDelete^^^ :)
ReplyDeleteWay cool! I would check out a dog from the library. In response to Doug's comment, I would imagine the trained therapy dog has a home other than the library, perhaps his can bring him in each day for students to check out, similar to the way that therapy dogs visit hospital patients but are not actually housed at the hospital.
ReplyDeleteMy wife, Lydia uses our dog, Sasha as a therapy dog when things in her house when her clients start to get really edgy and the results are immediate. Having one dog in a library would certainly not be a problem nor would taking care of it as I am sure it is easily trained to do its business at specified times. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is great. Dogs = good! They work in hospitals, nursing homes, and as companions for all sort of disabled people so why not at school? I wish we had one for the MAT FLEX program. Maybe I'll bring one in tonight!
ReplyDelete