Way back in December 2013, now-retired librarian Laura Friesen invited her friend Kim to visit the library and bring along her therapy dogs. Kim spent about an hour wondering the library offering students the chance to pet Rosie and Sadie and relieve some of their end of the semester stress. Thus began a relationship of over a decade between the Thompson Library and the Mid-Michigan Therapy Dogs (MMTD).
At the end of every Fall and Winter semesters, the Thompson Library schedules a visit from MMTD and it is one the highest anticipated events on campus. From the humble beginnings of one handler and a pair of dogs, the visits have grown often with seven or more dogs and over fifty students, faculty, and staff cycling in and out of the library for about an hour. Whether those students are waiting for the dogs to arrive or they enter the library and unexpectedly encounter puddles of students and dogs, they have an almost immediate change in demeanor when they realize that the dogs are there for them. In addition to petting some adorable dogs, the handlers talk with students asking about their day, how finals are going, or their own pets.
In the past two years after seeing the stress levels of students rising not just at the end of the semester, the Library has asked the MMTD to come for an additional visit during the middle of the semester. We have also scheduled visits during the staff appreciation events. With these added visits the library wanted to show our appreciation for the work that MMTD does. MMTD is a 501(c)(3) and is completely volunteer run, and in addition to scheduling visits at libraries, hospitals, nursing homes, and schools around the area, MMTD has a training program that runs classes for dogs and handlers twice a year. During this weeks long training, the soon-to-be therapy dogs make several field trips to gain experience in a variety of locations and with a variety of types of people that the dogs will be interacting with. MMTD has been looking for a new field trip location and reached out in Fall 2024 to see if the library would be willing to host their Spring class's first field trip. We said yes.
On the evening of April 15, about twenty therapy dogs in-training along with their handlers (including one current student and two alumni) and trainers from MMTD came to the library for their first outing and were greeted by passels of students. The excitement from both the dogs and handlers was palpable and the students were absolutely gleeful to get to meet new dogs. In addition to getting experience with larger groups of mostly young adults, the dogs also gained experience in new environments like parking garages and elevators. The visit was so successful that MMTD's head trainer asked to come back with the Fall class.
We are looking forward to a growing partnership with this amazing organization!
University of Michigan-Flint
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