Click Here for a slide show of dogs Animal Assisted Therapy
 
Animal Assisted Therapy, a program run through the Agriculture Residential College, will soon begin evaluating dogs volunteered to accompany students to nursing homes and hospitals.
 
Students who participate in the program take the dogs to visit patients to make them happier and possibly healthier.
 
AAT met Tuesday in Blake Hall to recruit new participants.
 
Bryan Amato, natural resource ecology and management sophomore, said he worked with the group last year and returned this year to lead.
 
He said students in the residential college apply to participate in the group, and the number of applicants accepted each year depends on the number of dogs available.
 
Amato said the group looks for well-behaved dogs that will interact well with senior citizens and young children.
 
Christina Giles, natural resource ecology and management sophomore, said volunteered dogs are evaluated at the School of Veterinary Medicine to be sure they’re healthy and obedient.
 
“You want to make sure they walk well on a leash, are well-behaved and work well with other dogs,” Giles said.
 
Amato said the group usually receives dogs from University faculty and staff, and most of them are already well trained.
 
Betsy Garrison, associate dean of the College of Agriculture, said the program accepts dogs that are already trained to allow the students more time to work with patients.
 
“The dog is really a vehicle for the conversation,” Garrison said. “It’s as much about the person as it is about the dog.”
 
Garrison said the program launched with the residential college three years ago.
 
“We wanted to develop signature programs that were unique to the Residential College and not offered to students in class,” Garrison said.
 
Garrison said she’s encouraged by the number of students returning from last year. She said only three students returned to the program last year, and eight came back this year.
 
Garrison said the program is run primarily by returning students who have had experience with animal-assisted therapy.
 
“The theme of the Residential College is leadership, and that’s what we encourage them to do,” Garrison said.
 
Amato said his favorite part of the program is seeing patients open up and enjoy themselves.
 
Kirby Brannon, natural resource ecology and management sophomore, led a portion of the meeting and explained to prospective members that the visits may not always be happy ones.
 
“You’ll see some heartbreaking cases,” Brannon said. “You really have to have the stomach for it.”
 
Alissa Walsh, animal sciences sophomore, worked in the program last year and said she saw something she didn’t expect.
 
Walsh said she visited a boy her age with cancer, and the dog she brought with her was the same breed he had at home.
 
“I almost cried,” Walsh said.
 
Amato said some of the experiences can be upsetting, but students will learn from them.
 
“The positives outweigh the negatives,” Amato said. “It really is an eye-opening experience.”
 
Brannon said in the meeting the group will up its involvement this year.
 
“This year we’re hitting the ground running,” Brannon said. “We’ve got four visits scheduled this semester, and then next semester we’ll do two a month.”
 
 
 
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Contact Rachel Warren at [email protected]