Kiana Doyle, a second year Western student, meets Eli the three year old German Shepherd therapy dog and Chris Monroe Eli’s caretaker.
Joe Addison // AS Review
By Kiaya Wilson
At the end of every quarter, cats and dogs take over a small section of the library during dead week and finals week. These animals are part of the program Canines & Cats on Campus that Western instituted to help alleviate stress during finals.
“[This] definitely makes finals week better,” said Malina Ascanio, a junior transfer student, while petting a dog in the library.
Canines & Cats on Campus started eight years ago.
Connie Mallison, administrative assistant to the dean of libraries, is an essential part of the program.
“I received a phone call one day from a lady in the Skagit [Therapy Dog] group who was involved in the beginning of the Whatcom Therapy Dog group,” Mallison said. “They asked if we would be interested in having [the dogs] come up and visit during dead week and finals week for the students.”
After that phone call, the program started.
“I checked with the dean that was here at that time, asked him what he thought about the idea and he was all for it as well,” Mallison said. “So that’s kind of how it got started.”
Mallison added that they came and did a walk through of the library to see where the best spot would be for the dogs and cats to hang out. They decided on the space right before the skybridge because it’s spacious and to the side so the animals wouldn’t get in people’s way.
“The other thing that we did run into early on was trying to be respectful of students and staff that have an aversion to dogs,” Mallison said. “That’s part of the reason they stay there, and they don’t visit all around the library, and also for allergies.”
After deciding where the animals would be, the next step was figuring out a policy for having pets in the library.
“As I recall there was really a lot of policy regarding animals on campus,” Mallison said. “The university has worked on policy and the library has taken that on board and kind of created our own policy that mirrors the university’s.”
The policies the university and the library have instituted allows service animals on campus, but not therapy animals or pets. However, registered therapy animals are allowed in the library during this program.
Mallison added that she really enjoys this program and she hopes students can share that joy.
“I hope students enjoy it,” Mallison said. “It helps to have a brain break.”
Western partners with Whatcom Therapy Dogs to find registered therapy animals to come for this program.
Co-founder of Whatcom Therapy Dogs, Pat Holmes, has been bringing her dog Henry to Western for about seven years.
“Our only purpose is to be a clearing house for people with therapy dogs,” Holmes said. “We get teams connected with places that want therapy dogs.”
Whatcom Therapy Dogs sponsors a variety of places including Western, Bellingham Technical College and Bellingham International Airport, but volunteers involved in the program can also take their therapy dog to visit places that aren’t sponsored by Whatcom Therapy Dogs.
“[We] started about eight or nine years ago,” said Holmes. “And we’ve been coming [to Western] for about seven years.”
Whatcom Therapy Dogs is an all volunteer-based organization and requires no funding, other than if they host someone for an event. Holmes said if they are hosting an event with a guest speaker, they will ask people attending to pay an entry fee, which goes directly to the guest speaker event.
“We have about 20 members and two local evaluators,” Holmes said.
Part of the training process is having the dog handler and dog be evaluated on how well behaved the dog is. The evaluators look for a dog who is trainable, has a good temperament and is not afraid of people or other dogs.
“Everybody trains their own dogs,” Holmes said. “We have some evaluators to help people get ready for the test.”
Volunteers who are involved with Whatcom Therapy Dogs get their certification through Pet Partners.
Rachael Jacobus, a dog handler who has been bringing her dog Chaokuay to the library for a year, is a member of Whatcom Therapy Dogs and went through Pet Partners for certification.
“There is an online handlers’ course and an in-person evaluation,” Jacobus said. “They teach you how to read dog signs, knowing when your dog gets stressed, how to have dogs interact with people and how to explain the difference between therapy and service dogs.”
One part of the evaluation is having the dog walk across the room and seeing if they react to things including other dogs, toys and loud noises like a chair dropping.
Jacobus said she has always wanted a therapy dog to help people deal with stress and that’s a big reason why she decided to volunteer for this program.
“I joined Whatcom Therapy Dogs and I attend Western so it’s convenient,” said Jacobus. “I love it because I love seeing other people interact with him and it brings joy to a lot of people.”
Most students that stop by to see the animals are just passing by in the library.
Natalie Vinh and Alex Bayer stopped by to pet Chaokuay for their first time seeing the dogs in the library. They said they believe petting him did help de-stress from finals.
“[I will] be back every finals from now on,” said Ascanio.
A variety of students, staff and volunteers said they are very fond of the program and they want it to continue for years.