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GSSWSR Student Services Coordinator John Edwards says they like to bring the dogs to campus around midterms and finals to give the students––as well as faculty and staff––some stress relief.

“Given how busy their lives are,” Edwards says, “can we give them 10 or 15 minutes where they can just not think about schoolwork, not think about the papers they have to do, and enjoy the company of a dog, and their classmates as well, in a low-pressure situation?”

Huckleberry is one of Bach’s three therapy dogs and has been working for five years. The dogs go through training in different situations to test their responses to medical equipment, people, loud noises, and other environmental stressors. They complete an obedience test every few months. The dogs visit hospitals, schools, senior facilities, and even libraries, where children read to them.

Paula Singer, M.S.S. ’00 has been volunteering with CCC for six years and came to campus with her lab Pandora, or “Panda." Singer works with children in schools on obstacles to their education including mental health issues, bullying, grief, and more, and she calls Panda the “perfect partner” in that work, calming anxieties and prompting conversation. 

“I enjoy talking to GSSWSR students who are interested in the role that therapy dogs can play in social work,” she says, “and giving them examples of interventions that were possible in my work because of the presence of a calm and affectionate dog.”