By Emily Domayer–Students looking for a study break during finals week had a chance to relax with some four-legged friends. The Special Troops Adaptive Riding School (STARS) were on campus Tuesday and Thursday.
The STARS program mostly uses horses for its animal therapy, but now it has a K-9 dog program as well. Jean Gill, an occupational therapist, started the program in 2005. “I was on the board of directors at STARS and brought up my quest. The suggestion was made to offer this through STARS as a pilot program. We did and it took off like crazy,” Gill said.
When she was studying at the University of Iowa, Morningside College librarian Holly Petersen saw the success of therapy dogs. She thought it would be a good idea to try on Morningside’s campus. “The dogs help students take a relaxing break from studying for their finals. They can also help students who are missing their pets back home,” she said.
A few of the dogs include Charley, a golden Retriever, a Brussels griffon named Teak, and a Yorkie named Miss Muffett. Gill said, “To be in the K-9 group, they have to complete 2 full 6-8 week sessions of obedience classes and pass the Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test. Once that is complete they can then take our temperament test that consists of obedience and temperament [personality] tests.”
A dog’s personality and how it has been trained are the best indicators of how well it would perform as a therapy dog. Gill has had to turn dogs away due to them not being able to appropriately handle stress.
With pet visitation at St. Luke’s Unity Point, the STARS K-9 program visits anyone who wants a visit and is not in isolation. “In ICU we can do sensory visits. A sensory visit is where the person is unconscious but family has requested a visit from the dogs. We talk to the patient and tell them about the dog, describe the dog then bring their hand to the dogs nose and talk about the cold wet nose that the dog has, talk about their warm breath and how excited they are to be visiting this person,” said Gill.
Students were busy working on papers and studying for tests. Still, junior Britta Kasmarik planned to go. “I have three dogs, and I miss them a lot. If I’m in the library when the dogs are here, I will go,” she said. Marco Acero would like to attend. “If I can get my papers done, I might go,” he said.
Gill said that most people can benefit from spending time with therapy dogs. “If someone is truly fearful of dogs, visits would not be good, but if someone simply had a bad experience with a dog and is willing to try to get over their fear, visiting with a therapy dog is the best way to do this.”
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