[nagdu] Fw: Dog Therapy for Stress.

[Ed Meskys]

Subject: Dog Therapy for Stress.


For Law Students With Everything, Dog Therapy for Stress.
 By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS. Black's Law Dictionary? Check.
An Introduction to Legal Reasoning? Check.
Small, cute dog? Check.
Yale Law School, renowned for competitiveness and its Supreme Court 
justices, is
embarking on a pilot program next week in which students can check out a
'therapy
dog' named Monty along with the library's collection of more than one 
million
books.
While the law school is saying little so far about its dog-lending program, 
it
has
distributed a memo to students with the basics: that Monty will be available 
at
the
circulation desk to stressed-out students for 30 minutes at a time beginning
Monday,
for a three-day trial run.
It is well documented that visits from therapy dogs have resulted in 
increased
happiness,
calmness and overall emotional well-being,' Blair Kauffman, the law 
librarian,
wrote
in an e-mail to students.
The school is not saying what sort of dog Monty is; what happens to him when
school
is out of session; or how Monty himself may be kept from becoming 
overstressed
with
all his play dates.
Sebastian Swett, 26, a second-year student at the law school, said he had 
signed
up for a session with the dog, but does not necessarily think that it will
relieve
all the pressures that come with being a student at Yale. I don't think its
going
to solve anybody's anxiety problems, but it's certainly nice to play with a 
dog
for
half an hour.
Monty, according to the memo to students, is hypoallergenic and will be kept 
in
a
nonpublic space inside the library, presumably away from those who don't 
much
like
dogs.
We will need your feedback and comments to help us decide if this will be a
permanent
ongoing program available during stressful periods of the semester, for 
example,
during examinations,' the note to students reads.
A handful of other universities offer similar services, including the 
University
of Wisconsin at Oshkosh.
Yale Law School has kept its dog-lending plan so quiet that some faculty 
members
were not even aware of it.
I'm surprised to hear of it,' said John Witt, a professor who was awarded a
Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation Fellowship last year for a project on the laws of war
through
American history. I've always found library books to be therapeutic. But 
maybe
that's
just me.
PHOTO: Details about Monty, the Yale Law School therapy dog, have been kept
quiet.
But dogs have had a long run as Yale's mascot, Handsome Dan, including 
Mugsy,
right,
in 2005. (PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB CHILD/ASSOCIATED PRESS) .