My Contact with Dr. Colleen Dell - Research on the Positive Impact a Therapy Dog can have on a College Community

Dr. Colleen Dell

After reading the March 2022 article Just 10 Minutes with a Therapy Dog May Have Profound Health Benefits I reached out to Dr. Colleen Dell, a Sociology Professor from the University of Saskatchewan, to see if I could learn more about the work she does with regard to therapy dogs. Dr. Dell was immediately responsive and I learned from Dr. Dell that she performs research on the impact of therapy dogs on those with addiction, inmates, patients, veterans, and university students.

Dr. Dell’s website Leading PAWSitive Canine Connections is a comprehensive documentation of all the research she and her team have performed.

I was particularly interested in her research study PAWSing Student Stress: A Pilot Evaluation Study of the St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog Program on Three University Campuses in Canada. Per the research study’s abstract “Student mental health is a concern on university campuses, and animal-assisted interventions are one response. This article presents the immediate and three-month follow-up outcomes of a pilot evaluation study of the St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog program at three Canadian universities. Analyzing a sample of 403 students and 16 handlers/observers at the events and 87 students at follow-up, we found that the therapy dogs offer love and support. Love is understood as having reciprocal love for the dogs and gaining positive feelings from visiting with them. Support is understood as destressing and relaxing by interacting with the dogs. Implications for mental health supports for university students are suggested.”

I learned a lot about the positive impact a therapy dog can have on a college community based on this research study. Dr. Dell forwarded my correspondence with her to her Research Assistant Ben Carey, who I hope to connect with soon to further my education on their research.