B.A.R.K. program coordinator Freya Green measures therapy dog Dash for the study. Floor Xs mark students seating, with discussion encouraged with handler Maureen Watt (seated) and researcher Mikaela Dahlman.
Is it a scratch behind the ears while staring into those puppy dog eyes, or is it a gentle pat on the back and a wagging tail that makes spending time with a therapy dog so comforting?
New research from UBC Okanagan suggests that when it comes to boosting wellbeing, it does not matter which part of a therapy dog students interact with—just that they do.
The study was led by Dr. John-Tyler Binfet, Professor in the Okanagan School of Education and Director of the Building Academic Retention Through K-9s (B.A.R.K.) program. Co-authored by B.A.R.K. coordinator Freya Green and student researchers Rebecca Godard, Mikaela Dahlman and Zahra Basiri, the study looked at whether students felt any different when they touched a therapy dog’s head, mid-section or tail-end.
“This research builds upon a previous study that explored wellbeing outcomes associated with touch versus no touch during therapy dog interactions,” says Dr. Binfet. “However, it really began with a graduate student asking a simple question: does it matter what part of the dog students interact with? Questions like this show the strength of our close-knit campus community, where students help shape research conversations explore new ideas.”
The study involved 198 students who volunteered to take part in brief, structured therapy dog sessions. Each participant was randomly matched with one of three therapy dog–handler teams and was asked to focus on petting a specific section of the dog’s head, middle or tail-end.
Each session lasted 10 minutes and participants were encouraged to pet the dog as much as possible. To keep sessions consistent, researchers set the same distance between the handler, participant and dog, and had students sit on floor markers, equally spaced apart.
It turns out that simply patting and interacting with the therapy dog made a difference.
In all three groups, students said they felt better and less stressed after spending time with the therapy dogs. While interaction with the dog’s head showed a slightly stronger benefit, the overall finding was that all forms of touch contributed positively to participants’ emotional wellbeing.
“As students deal with academic and personal stress, easy-to-access wellbeing supports are more important than ever,” says Dr. Binfet. “Programs like B.A.R.K. help create moments of care, connection and calm.”
The study was published in Human-Animal Interactions, an open-access interdisciplinary journal dedicated to the field of interactions between humans and animals.
