UMD PAWS Hosts Therapy Animals on National Puppy Day

DULUTH, Minn. – March 23 is National Puppy Day, and it happened to coincide with the latest visit of therapy animals at UMD.

The weather did not stop UMD PAWS from hosting seven dogs and one hedgehog at the Kirby Student Center to give students, faculty, and staff a chance to lower their stress.  It was a lower number of animals than usual, which did not see people bring them from the Iron Range.

Kevin Browne and his dog Makoons are one of the regulars to this event.  He says events like this brings benefits those who attend.  “It’s a very good thing to do.  It’s a very good thing to do at a lot of different places like I said, the nursing homes.  They’re awesome. It does a good job for them.”

Browne adds his Great Pyrenees and other animals enjoy the time, but there is a limit.  “It does wear them out, so that’s why we only do things for two hours because there is a lot of the feel good hormones when you pet a dog, they feel the same thing and the same hormones are released by them.  After a while they are kind of stressed out by it.  Makoons will be asleep in the truck before we leave the parking lot.”

Browne says COVID did stop him and others from bringing their animals to nursing homes and hosting a kid’s camp last summer.  He’s hopeful things will return to normal as the pandemic transforms into an endemic.  “Once they opened up the campuses again, at least with the mask to start with the last year, it’s been good.”

The monthly visits are a collaboration between UMD Health Services, Kathryn A. Miller Library, KUMD Radio, and Animal Allies Humane Society.