British Program Offers Anxious Students Free Puppy Cuddling Sessions To Help Them Relax

Dec 04, 2019 by apost team

People in Britain can now go to free puppy cuddling sessions to help them de-stress. One is being held soon and will be live-streamed on YouTube for stressed people (or people that just enjoy watching cute puppies) to join in vicariously.

Interacting with pets, particularly cute puppies, has been objectively demonstrated to reduce levels of stress, improve mood, and even help with depression. Therapy dogs are widely used to help hospitalized patients feel better; why not extend the benefits to others?

The new program will kick off on November 21 by offering worried university students the chance to cuddle and play with a litter of puppies. The puppies are being provided by Urban Paws UK, a pet modeling agency, and the event will follow all animal welfare and RSPCA guidelines.

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Those worried about exploiting animals for human gain can stop worrying. An essential part of raising calm, confident dogs involves a process called "socialization" where the young puppies are exposed to as many different people, animals, things, and places as possible. The "window of socialization" is thought to close at around 16 weeks of age. Undersocialized puppies tend to grow up into fearful, anxious dogs.

People raising litters of puppies routinely invite groups of people over to play and visit with the pups as part of this socialization process; thus, offering stressed students a chance to destress by playing with puppies benefits everyone.

Prior to discovering how vital it is to socialize young puppies, many veterinarians made the mistake of encouraging people to keep puppies as isolated as possible before completing their puppy shots. However, the rather low risk of contracting a disease during socialization needs to be balanced against the close to 100% chance of the puppy growing up into a dog with serious temperament problems if it is not socialized, so now veterinarians generally advise starting socialization as soon as the puppy's eyes open and focus intensely on it until age 16 weeks.

Students are being offered space in the puppy cuddle session on a first-come basis. Only two students will be allowed to play with the puppies at a time in order to make sure the puppies don't get overwhelmed.

Surveys have shown that around 60% of British students are anxious and stressed, usually about insufficient money. Thus, in addition to providing puppies at the puppy cuddle session, a financial adviser will attend the session in order to provide advice about budgets and finances.

What do you think about this new program? Do you believe cuddling a puppy can help relieve stress? Let us know in the comments and be sure to pass this article along.