Therapy dogs come LSU to help students get through finals week

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - LSU students cramming for finals got a nice surprise in the library on Thursday morning.

Therapy dogs with the group Tiger H.A.T.S. stopped by the Middleton Library.

Tiger Human Animal Therapy Service is a group of pet owners with trained therapy dogs to help people deal with stressful times.

Many students showed up to pet the dogs.

“It’s always a very stressful time for our students,” said Elizabeth Long, a resource specialist with LSU. “And they come into the library to study, and they get a nice surprise that there’s dogs.”

The dogs included large poodles with the letters LSU shaved into their bodies.

They also included smaller dogs like Nash. His owner, Stephanie Johnson, says the dogs really help students who have pets of their own, but haven’t seen them in a long time because of school.

“All of these dogs are so relaxed, and a lot of them come in and give him a rub for good luck before I go in for my final, and it lets go of some of that stress,” Johnson said.

And the best part? The dogs may enjoy it more than the humans!

“I can tell you for him, he gets offended if someone walks by and doesn’t pet him,” Johnson said. “Because that’s just... that’s what they’re here for. That’s what they like. It’s tough to be them... and be cute and want to be petted all the time. But they all get just as much as the humans do out of the whole process.”

Finals week ends on Saturday.