Written by Carlein Kay

Anyone walking through Old Main on any Thursday this semester may have noticed a group of dogs eager to greet them. The St. John’s Ambulance Therapy Dogs and TRU Wellness Program have been working together for almost 10 years to bring smiles to students and staff through their weekly visits. Located on Student Street beside Starbucks in Old Main, Therapy Dog Thursday ran from 10 am to 12 pm every Thursday. Volunteer Bridget Jensen has been a part of the partnership since its debut, stating  “They wanted something to boost morale and have a ‘make people feel good’ program and we started there.”

Therapy Dogs at Student Street in Old Main

Bridget’s golden retriever Daisy and the other dogs love helping the students and staff that visit.     “. . .there’s lots of scientific things that they’ve done that says it boosts endorphins, dopamine, and all that sort of stuff when they’re petting a dog. And also lower their blood pressure and calming them down a bit” Bridget commented, “We just found that pets are the best stress busters.” Between exams and daily life visitors have innumerous reasons to feel stress, “There’s so many international students that come, and they’re away from home and homesick and miss their pets, and they enjoy coming here just to make them feel good.” Bridget said that many people who come to destress are frequent visitors, “People have often told me that this is their favourite day of the week and it just makes them feel better, less nervous. Where they’ve either just had an exam or are just going to an exam it sort of calms them down a bit and just makes them feel good. A lot of them are regulars.” It’s no wonder that the event is so popular with all who have had the pleasure of taking part.

Daisy helping visitors through affection.

Bridget has been working together with St. John’s Ambulance Therapy Dogs since 2009 with her previous dog Molly, and since 2014 with Daisy. “We visited the hospital, care homes, Molly was even the story dog at the library for a number of years. And children read to her just because they’re so calming.” Bridget explained, “These are for children that had difficulty reading or were too embarrassed to read and you know they could just come and have no judgement, just reading to a dog and making them feel good.” Having a kind presence with calm energy helps to soothe anxieties and worries away. All the dogs in the Therapy teams are carefully picked and are the volunteers personal dogs as well. “. . . all the dogs from St John’s Ambulance therapy dogs, these are all our own dogs. And they just have the temperament that we thought would be good for visiting care homes and places like TRU.”

The selection process for becoming a therapy dog is long and intensive. “St. John’s Ambulance is the one that evaluates everybody, and makes sure that they’re safe and that they’re healthy. It is a process [to register] and it’s quite complicated.” Bridget remarked “ But worth it.” Describing the steps she explained, “They have an evaluator that evaluates them all, before that there’s a pre-questionnaire and it’s in-depth and everyone has to have, obviously a criminal check. And if all flies, the dogs have to be all vaccinated and healthy also.” The process is still far from over however. “Once they are evaluated and certified, they still have to go out for supervised visits before they can go out on their own. So there’s a process of about 3-6 months once you get your evaluation to be on your own.” All of this paperwork and training is highly worth the certification though. Having a professionally trained therapy dog carries a lot of weight for people with disabilities, who may need the dog’s help to complete day-to-day tasks. Being able to bring their dog with them into places where pets are not normally allowed requires the verification process, so while lengthy it is necessary.

Before the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, Therapy Dog Thursday ran from 10 am – 2 pm every Thursday. “In those days we had quite a few more dogs, dog teams – we call them therapy dog teams- that came so we were there just for an hour at a time” Bridget recalls. “Since Covid we haven’t been doing anything, we just started back up [Fall 2022] here and have less therapy dog teams so we’re just doing it in the mornings on Thursdays.” Posters and flyers around campus have advertised the event with the list of dates, the last one being on December 1st. With classes no longer in session, the therapy dogs have moved onto visiting care homes and the hospital during the holidays.

Bridget and her team have worked hard over the last decade to bring happiness and create an environment that helps to lower stress for all who visit. Even just passing by and seeing the wagging tails of the dogs while rushing to class can brighten up a day. People have grown to love the dogs and volunteers, “A lot of them have said that this is the best day of the week and they look forward to their Thursdays,” Bridget said while several nearby students nodded their heads in agreement.