It is usually around the time when students are taking finals that therapy dogs arrive at Pitt-Johnstown.

However, on Oct. 17, Shaylee and Ellie, two therapy dogs from Golden Girls Pet Therapy, visited Owen Library for three hours to help students relieve midterm stress.

Around 30 students visited the two dogs within the first half-hour that day.

While bringing therapy dogs onto campus is a great idea to help relieve stress from exams, it is unusual that the event was held in the library.

When the dogs visited in the past, they would usually be somewhere in the Student Union, where they have a lot of space and attract a large number of people. 

However, holding the event in the library doesn’t make much sense.

The library is meant to be a quiet place for students to study and get schoolwork done, so why would the dogs be brought into the library?  With the dogs in the library and many students going in there to see them, it can create a noisy environment for those who need to study or get work done.

Holding the event in the library also causes concern for those who have allergies.  What if a student who had to be in the library that day was allergic to dogs?

There were also only two dogs present at the event, but in the past there have been up to six. There was supposed to be a third, but the owner didn’t show up.

 Organizers should have known that many students would be going to see the dogs, so why were only two brought to campus? 

The dogs are trained to be around people, but 30 students rushing into a small space surrounding two dogs could still put stress on the animals.

It is not a bad thing that the dogs were brought to campus, and we hope organizers continue to hold events like this.

Students and staff alike seem to enjoy it when they are here, and we feel that the event is a good way to help relieve stress, but the library is not the best place.

We feel that the dogs should be featured in a place where they have more room to move around, like in the past in the Student Union and considering the number of students that come to visit the dogs, bringing in more dogs or possibly only letting a certain number of students into the room at a time to see them.

It is a good thing that organizers bring the dogs to campus and help calm down stressed out students as well as teachers during exam time.