ATLANTA (AP) — Just down the hall from the reference desk
at Emory University’s law library in a room housing antique legal texts
is Stanley the golden retriever puppy, barking his head off.
Stanley
rolls around on the floor and chews on a squeaky toy while zombie-like
law students wander in, a giant grin breaking out on their weary faces
when they see the cuddly boy. Puppy therapy — just in time for finals
week.
From Kent State University in Ohio to Macalester College in
Minnesota, more and more pooches are around campus during exams to help
students relax and maybe even crack a smile or two.
"We had a
student who came in and a staff person commented they had never seen
that student smile," said Richelle Reid, a law librarian who started
Emory’s pet therapy program this year after hearing about one at the
University of California, San Francisco. "It has had positive effects,
helping them to just have a moment to clear their minds and not have to
think about studies, not have to think about books."
Pups are in counseling centers for students to visit regularly or faculty and staff
bring their pets to lift spirits.
Pet-friendly dorms also are popping up where students can bring their dogs or cats
from home.
Want
to check out a pet? It’s possible at Harvard Medical School and Yale
Law School, which both have resident therapy dogs in their libraries
that can be borrowed through the card catalog just like a book.
Some
dogs, like Harvard Medical School’s resident shih tzu Cooper, hold
regular office hours. Researcher Loise Francisco-Anderson owns Cooper
and said she got permission to bring him to campus after her husband
read that Yale Law School had a therapy dog on campus named Monty.
Cooper,
who sports a crimson scarf with paw prints on it, is so popular that
undergraduate students have been petitioning for him to spend time on
their side of campus. Many of them take the shuttle across the river to
the medical school just to visit the pup on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
"You
can release some of the emotions to a pet that you can’t to a human. A
pet keeps it confidential. You don’t have to worry about someone else
saying, ‘Oh, I think she’s having a nervous breakdown over the science
exam,’" said Francisco-Anderson.
Most schools, like Emory, partner
with organizations that train companion dogs so that the canines get
their social training while students get stress relief. Others, like at
Harvard, have faculty members bring their dogs — which are certified to
be therapy pups — to campus certain hours during the week.
The service is almost always free for students.
Research
shows that interaction with pets decreases the level of cortisol — or
stress hormone — in people and increases endorphins, known as the
happiness hormone. Scant research exists on the how pet programs on
college campuses help students cope with stress.
That’s why
Kathleen Adamle, a nursing professor at Kent State, hopes to garner a
grant so she can conduct research as part of her "Dogs on Campus"
program. Adamle launched the program in 2006 with just her dog and has
since added 11 other therapy canines to the team that visits dorms
regularly throughout the year.
The dogs belong to Adamle or other community members and are certified therapy dogs.

She
has plenty of anecdotal evidence that her program works. As soon as
there’s a tragedy on campus — a student dies in a car wreck, for example
— dorms scramble to book the dog team to help comfort upset students,
she says.
"I don’t care if it’s 10 at night, we go to that dorm
and sit on the floor. The kids are crying, and they grab the dog and put
their face in the fur and just let it go," said Adamle.
Since
2006, Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., has asked faculty and
alumni to bring their dogs to campus during finals as part of the "Dog
Day Afternoon" program. At Kenyon College in Ohio, the counseling center
and dorms offer puppy play dates with Sunny the yellow lab and Sam the
poodle-Chihuahua mix.
Last month, Indiana University students
romped around with dogs in the first ever "Rent-a-Puppy" day. For $5,
students could book time with one of 20 puppies from the local animal
shelter — and could adopt them if they couldn’t bear to say goodbye.
First-year
Emory law student Anna Idelevich took a break from studying for exams
at the library on a recent afternoon to visit Stanley and Hooch, two
golden retrievers training to be companion dogs for disabled owners. The
private university brought in the dogs as part of a new program to help
students cope with the stress of exams.
"I’ve literally been here
every day. This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me," said
Idelevich, 22. "They couldn’t have thought of a better way to relieve
stress. If they don’t do it next year, I’ll be upset."
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Follow Dorie Turner at http://www.twitter.edu/dorieturner.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.