Animals help relieve students’ finals stress

Courtney Sinnott shouted in excitement as she ran toward one of two Yorkshire Terriers at the Furry Finals Fix at Briscoe Quad on Sunday.\n“This looks like my dog at home!” the freshman screamed.\nRevitalizing Animal Well-Being, an IU animal advocacy group, provided students the opportunity to play with ten different dogs for stress relief during finals week.\n“I have a dog at home and I really, really miss him,” Sinnott said. “Seeing these dogs has calmed me down. My dog at home is my best friend.”\nThe purpose of the event was to give students an opportunity to interact with animals and forget about all they have to do in preparation for finals, Kendall said.\n“It kind of takes your mind off things,” Sinnott said. “A dog comes up and gives you a kiss and it makes all your problems go away.” \n While Sinnott enjoyed interacting with new dogs, the dog owners also benefitted.\n“My dog is about the only break I get from my work,” said Lynn Ramert, a doctoral student and assistant instructor. “I haven’t been able to get away from my laptop lately and it’s nice to meet new people and new dogs. Everyone has a smile on their face and that’s unusual before finals week.”\nRamert’s dog, Abigail, a Scottish Terrier, was one of the dogs available for students to play with. The dogs at the event were a range of sizes and ages, from terriers to a full-grown Siberian Husky. The youngest dog was four months old, while the rest of the dogs were full grown.\n“Not everybody likes one dog,” Sinnott said. “Having all the different types of dogs symbolizes IU and our diversity.”\n This is the second semester in which RAW has held \nthis event.\n“We had a lot more people than last year,” said Kara Kendall, an officer of RAW and creator of Furry Finals Fix. “We had a really good turnout. The dogs are loving it. At the beginning, the dogs were just ecstatic. They tore around getting to know each other.”\nAttendees seemed to have just as much fun as the dogs.\n“It doesn’t matter how you do on your finals, (dogs) will love you no matter what,” Sinnott said.\nThe next event RAW plans to hold is Sealed with a Kiss, a kissing marathon to raise money to prevent the slaughter of seals in Canada. The event is planned to take place in February.