Michelle Rizzi (BA ’24) makes no bones about her research into why students are attracted to on-campus therapy dog visits.

Rizzi, who graduated with Bachelor of Arts in Child and Youth Studies on Tuesday, June 11 during Brock’s 115th Convocation, completed an undergraduate honours thesis examining the motivations of university students who attend sessions with therapy dogs.

“We were also interested in whether, if therapy dog sessions were available to students more often, there would be interest, and we found that it was an overwhelming ‘yes,’” says Rizzi. “A lot of the students wanted to visit more frequently.”

Brock’s Student Wellness and Accessibility Centre (SWAC) regularly brings Therapeutic Paws of Canada to campus to support student wellness. Rizzi got permission to set up a research table at two events, one in Market Hall at Brock’s main campus and a second at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, to collect her data this winter.

Michelle Rizzi (BA ’24) with Oliver from Therapeutic Paws of Canada.

Rizzi chose not to approach anyone taking part in the sessions, but those who visited her table were invited to fill out a survey. Once the surveys were complete, she analyzed the responses for her thesis, which yielded some unexpected findings.

She found that students were motivated to attend by a number of factors, ranging from stress relief to needing a break to an affinity for dogs, and that they experienced immediate effects from their sessions.

“Students reported a lot of positive benefits, particularly after the session,” says Rizzi. “There was a question about what they were feeling like before and then after, and while before they felt a lot of negative emotions and negative feelings, afterwards, a lot of them stated that they felt positive feelings.”

Another surprising finding related to social interactions at therapy dog sessions. While some students expressed that they only talked to the friends with whom they attended, others said that part of their reason for taking part was to interact with other students and talk to the dog handlers.

“I thought I would hear more about the stress relief aspect and the emotional wellness aspect — I didn’t really expect people to say that they went to these sessions because they wanted to interact with either their peers or the handlers,” says Rizzi. “I was really surprised that people named fostering community interaction within Brock as a benefit of the sessions.”

Professor Christine Tardif-Williams, Rizzi’s thesis supervisor, says that understanding what draws students to these events is key to understanding how they can be used to improve mental health and wellness supports offered to university students, especially as therapy dog programs grow in popularity at universities across North America and beyond.

Tardif-Williams, who has studied several aspects of dog therapy, including virtual sessions during the pandemic, says that there are many benefits to understanding student motivations.

“These are programs that can reach students in a timely fashion, they’re cost effective and they’re easily accessible to a diverse student body, which makes them very attractive as long as students want to come out,” she says. “But we know that young people are often reluctant to seek mental health services.”

Tardif-Williams believes that there is potential for additional research in the area Rizzi investigated.

“The literature is highly focused on how physical touch and contact and petting a dog can potentially reduce stress and cortisol,” says Tardif-Williams. “But another factor that we need to parse out is the impact of the handler and the social interactions — there are other people who attend these sessions and handlers who facilitate interactions with therapy dogs, and perhaps they play a bigger role than we realize.”