The puppy trend is spreading…

We’ve all already grumbled with jealousy over Aberdeen Uni’s puppy room, but the puppy trend is upping its ante with Edinburgh University’s “therapy pets.” Edinburgh’s drafted in puppies and pooches […]

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We’ve all already grumbled with jealousy over Aberdeen Uni’s puppy room, but the puppy trend is upping its ante with Edinburgh University’s “therapy pets.”

Edinburgh’s drafted in puppies and pooches from across the UK in conjunction with Canine Concern, a charity which uses puppies to alleviate stress, usually in hospital patients or with those with severe puppy-phobia (what a ruff life they must lead). This, however, is the first time Canine Concern has worked in education.

According to Douglas Ruthven, a member of Canine Concern, working with a puppy releases endorphins into the bloodstream. Dr Jenny Leader of Edinburgh Uni’s Student Counseling Service takes this fact to heart saying, “some students have done an awful lot of work, and yet still get wound up and stressed about how they’re going to perform [on exams]. So it may be that a little bit of working with a dog can just take the edge off, and calm them down.” St Andrews has gotten the ball rolling with Andrew Melville’s recent puppy therapy, but is our university too busy creating a surveillance atmosphere in the library to comfort us with some golden labs? Only time will tell.

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