By: Amanda Dolan
Research has found that dogs in the classroom can help lower stress levels in primary school students. The study by UK researchers has found that spending at least 20 minutes with a dog twice a week for four weeks is better at lowering stress in students than classroom relaxation activities like meditation.
Less stress is better, seeing as stress usually causes mistakes. Stress pressures you, and pressure sometimes causes people to rush, rushing causes mistakes. Mistakes can be good, they help you learn! But many mistakes could easily become a problem. If people stress out often, they're going to make more mistakes. This is why therapy dogs are helpful in the classroom.
As studies show, students are much more relaxed when these dogs are present. Due to a dog’s sharp sensitivity to human emotion, they make excellent therapy animals. They sho sympathy and empathy by cuddling, nuzzling or moaning when they sense that a human being is unhappy or in general emotional pain. Therapy dogs are intended to bring happiness, comfort, and/or company to any human being.
Of course, some kids might be scared of dogs, or allergic to them, and that is to be ecpected. To help those that are scared of dogs, the therapy dogs should be calm dogs that have been trained very well. If this strategy still doesn’t work for children who are fearful, then perhaps therapy dogs are not the best stress reduction tactic for that student, just as it probably would not be the best tactic for children with dog allergies.
Therapy dogs are now being introduced in businesses to help employees feel less stressed and more productive. This would help them raise more money, and money will allow them to help keep themself and their own family happy, healthy, safe, and most importantly, alive.
Sources:
- Dogs in schools lower student stress _ KidsNews
- Classroom ‘doggie dates’ reduce stress in primary school kids
- Therapy Dogs Reduce Stress and Anxiety of Student