Puppy yoga was at Durham College for two days and with exams around the corner, this was a way for students to relax.
Ontario Tech Kinesiology students Abbey Dillon and Abby Kennedy, saw the event on Instagram and thought it would be a great way to decompress.
“We’re studying for an exam today, so this is a really great study break,” said Kennedy.
About 120 students were able to attend puppy yoga classes, which spanned over two days with three sessions a day.
“It’s literally an hour where you don’t have to think about anything going on in your personal life,” says Jessica Pavicic, the owner of Pawsitivity Events in Bowmanville.
Pavicic started her business a year and eight months ago after taking a class herself. She now specializes in offering puppy and kitten yoga.
She works with local breeders and shelters as a way for the animals to socialize with humans before they find their forever home.
This is the second time Durham College and Ontario Tech have partnered with Pavicic. She brings puppy yoga at the end of the semester to help students during a stressful time.
“Just with exam season, it’s a very high stress time and students often need something to decompress themselves,” she says.
The puppies were not the only ones on campus this month.
Enactus Durham College and the Recreation and Leisure Services classes had a guest speaker on Nov. 17.
David McDougall and his dog, Paisley, volunteer with Therapeutic Paws to provide the community with comfort and joy.
“I got into this organization because I wanted to give back,” he says. “So, we do Lakeridge Health, we go into all the hospitals associated with lots of patients with dementia, mental disease, other debilitating illnesses.”
The therapy dogs only work for an hour a week to not overwhelm them. In that hour, McDougall and Paisley visit Lakeridge Health Oshawa where they spend their time in the palliative care unit.
“She meets with the patients under palliative care, helping them out with their end of life transition,” said McDougall.
Paisley is only two years old but has been training to be a therapy dog for most of her life. McDougall has done lots of training with her to ensure that she is able to behave in those environments and desensitize her to situations such as disasters.
According to the National Institutes of Health, a study in Ottawa of 265 university students found regular interaction with therapy dog visits lowered students’ stress levels.
Pavicic says she will be back during exam season in the winter semester to help students again.