Finals are usually the part of the semester every college student dreads, but with the help of Paws for Stress Relief students got the chance to relieve some stress.

4 Paws for Ability is a non-profit organization founded in 1998 by Karen Shirk, whose mission is to train superb service dogs that will later be placed with children with disabilities or veterans who have been injured during service, animal rescue, and to educate the public about service dogs out in public places.

Paws for Stress Relief is an event that University Health Services puts on for the students for free that allows the students to come and unwind with puppies, coloring pages, and other stress relief activities.

Pre-med graduate student Nadera Dabbain was spending a little bit of time with each puppy that was there to get the full effect of relieving some stress before getting back to studying.

“I have three finals and a group project. It has been difficult to try and get everyone together at the same time to work on it because everyone is so busy,” Dabbain said.  

Dabbain said that being able to play with these puppies really does help to relieve stress because even the week before finals is full of preparation; classes are still taking attendance, and students are learning new material.

4 Paws trainer Abby Sheeler attended the event with her service dog, Belle. She feels it is great not only for the students but beneficial for the dogs as well.

“I think it is a good way to socialize the dogs and give them people to be around so when they are placed with a family, they are used to being around people. I think it is good for the students when you are having a stressful day; you are able to come up and pet the dogs. It is really good for both of them,” said Sheeler.  

The dogs come from a specific breeder that only breeds service dogs in Xenia, Ohio. Once they are picked from there and brought to Lexington, they are put into immediate training to teach them basic manners and potty training.

After they have mastered their basic training, they are then placed with the students at UK and begin working with them on becoming a service dog. After they have been with the students, they move on to working with a professional trainer that trains them to a specific need. Finally, after months of preparation and training they are then placed with a family for the specific need of that family.

During the dogs’ time at UK, the dogs do have play dates outside of their daily training. This helps them with socialization skills and healthy fun as well.

“The playground behind the Funkhouser Building now has a fence around it so we will take the dogs over there for play dates all the time,” Sheeler said. “I bought a kiddie pool and I will bring it with me over there. The dogs love it.”