by Marissa Yelenik

[The content in this article has been updated.]

Wags for Wellness held its last meeting before the University of Maryland’s spring break on Friday, March 17 — and a special celebration for one of its longest-serving dogs.

The program provides students with the opportunity to visit dogs on campus to combat stress and provide companionship through their partnership with the nonprofit People. Animals. Love.

Wags for Wellness receives anywhere from 50 to 200 students at regular visits and has had over 400 students visit during special events.

People. Animals. Love. provides a large database of volunteers for the Wags for Wellness program, with over 15 teams that continuously participate in Wags for Wellness events.

Three of these teams were present at the Friday meeting: Cathy Loyd, with her golden retrievers Max, Sawyer and Finley, Bonnie Carr with her golden retriever Chloe and Emily Mazzella with her cavachon Cooper.

Max, a long-time therapy dog with the program, turned 11 on Friday and celebrated with a round of whipped cream cups for all the furry volunteers, including his adoptive brothers Sawyer and Finley.

Four of the dogs present quickly tore into their treats, but Cooper, the 8-year-old cavachon, spent his time savoring it with meticulous licks and attention.

Wags for Wellness started out as a test in 2015 but quickly became a regular program with three meets a month from 2016 to the start of the pandemic. The program now holds three monthly events for the general student body and one exclusive to student-athletes, a new addition to the program to increase outreach.

“When we first started this program, we started it with the idea that we wanted to help address high rates of stress and anxiety on campus,” said Sarah Wilson, who founded the Wags for Wellness program and is the mental wellness and stress management strategy coordinator for the university’s Health Center.

She explained that one of the first people to volunteer with Wags for Wellness led her to widen the program’s goal to not only help with stress and anxiety but provide comfort to students living away from their pets for the first time.

“We’ve also found that maybe someone has traditionally felt really nervous and scared around animals. Maybe they use Wags for Wellness as a place to start more comfortable,” Wilson said.

While the program advertises itself as a stress relief program, many students use it for more than that.

“I have a dog at home and I miss him a lot, so coming here is very nice for me because it’s therapeutic as well,” said Avantika Chauhan, a second-year applied economics master’s student. “Our [graduate] program is very hectic … coming here calms me, it’s so cute.”

Cassia Rodrigues, also a second-year applied economics masters student, said the events cheered her up.

“It’s a wonderful thing UMD does. Grad school is so stressful, so this way you do have some cute cuddly pets,” Rodrigues said, “especially for people who do have dogs back home and pets back home.”

Wilson praised the numerous volunteers who work with the program.

“I mean this so genuinely from the bottom of my heart, our program would not be what it is today without some of those volunteers. They have offered their insights, their time, their expertise, they have been with us every step of the way … just being so thoughtful, and kind, and helpful,” she said.

The time, effort and care put into the program by volunteers doesn’t go unnoticed by the students.

“Even the people that come along with the dogs are so sweet,” Rodrigues said. “They ask you about what you’re doing, where you’re going; it’s really nice to have that.”

Wilson said many of the volunteers are alumni of the university or have children at the university, creating an even stronger bond.

“I’m really passionate about this work. I’ve been engaged in animal assisted activity work for nearly a decade now,” she said. “This is work that has been really meaningful to me for a long period of time.”

Featured image: Max and Finley lick the whipped cream off of each other’s mouths as a participant pets and feeds Sawyer, Friday, March 3, 2023. Photo by Marissa Yelenik.