By Rory Cahill 

Out of all of this year’s homecoming events, Teddy’s Pup Parade might be the cutest. Organized by the University of Maryland’s campus police, the parade last Thursday brought together 16 dogs and their humans, as well as long lines of spectators.

“Our first year for the Pup Parade was actually in 2023, and we got the idea from our sister school, UMBC,” Lt. Rosanne Hoaas said. The parade consists of a short, rectangular loop around part of McKeldin Mall, with plenty of time afterwards for spectators to meet the dogs.

Teal, a five-month-old Golden Retriever-Labrador Retriever mix, took a break from UMD’s service dog program to join the parade. 

“She is on the seeing-eye track, so she should be a seeing-eye dog, hopefully,” her handler, junior biology major Amber Brown, said. “But we’ll see in about a year, when she goes off to actual training.” 

Brown explained that the Pup Parade is helpful for Teal because it gets her used to being around lots of dogs at once.

Puppies Ozzy and Skippy seemed especially excited to be at the parade. They showed up in matching shark costumes–a total coincidence, according to Ozzy’s human, junior computer science major Ella Antonishek. When her friend showed her a picture of Skippy’s costume, Antonishek realized it was exactly the same as the costume she’d already bought for Ozzy. The two puppies spent much of their time playfully wrestling in the grass and occasionally pouncing on other dogs and humans.

“[Ozzy] loves to play fetch on the mall at McKeldin,” Antonishek said. “He’s super loving and super friendly, and he’s the greatest dog.”

Then there’s Teddy, a four-year-old Lab who’s the star of the event. 

“We saw a rise of people in distress on campus, and it’s really hard talking to police sometimes,” Cpl. Melissa Fischer, Teddy’s handler, said. 

Teddy, she said, can help people who go to the police open up about difficult experiences. She added that Teddy can help if people are homesick, lonely, having a bad day or they don’t like a professor or class. 

When asked for comment on his experience as a comfort dog, Teddy replied by panting and licking the interviewer’s face.

Featured Image: Teddy surveying his domain. Photo by Rory Cahill