By Shira Ledani and Katherine Ferrante

To ease the tensions of mid-terms, Bright Spot Therapy Dogs brought their furry brand of stress relief to students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst last Tuesday.

Though only in its second semester of providing services to the UMass student body, Bright Spot is in its tenth year as a non-profit serving the people of Massachusetts. According to Bright Spots founder Cynthia Hinckley, volunteers and their dogs are trained and certified to visit healthcare and educational environments and provide beneficial therapy.

“[Dogs are] very empathetic…I’m very stress free now that I’ve seen the dogs,” said Michael Gilmartin, a peer health educator at UMass Amherst.

With close to 130 volunteers,Bright Spot finds the right kind of visiting environment for each type of dog. Some of the calmer breeds, such as Hinckley’s English Setters, are reading buddies who work with first and second graders, listening to the kids as they practice and develop their reading skills.

As opposed to service dogs, which are trained to only help the person they live with, therapy dogs are trained to respond to outsiders, comfortable going into any setting. Trainers and their dogs are trained at “both ends of the leash” to learn the skills and techniques used by Bright Spots.

The use of therapy dogs on college campuses first started on the West Coast, before sweeping across the country. Now as its popularity grows, Bright Spot has more requests from colleges during mid-terms and finals than they can handle.

The event, which was sponsored by UMass’s Center for Health Promotion, was a success based on the relaxed smiles on students’ faces as they left, unable to stop talking about how cute the dogs were.

Bright Spot and the therapy dogs will be back on-campus during finals week in a couple of months, but if you feel stressed or overwhelmed before December, visit the Center for Health Promotion or the Center for Counseling and Psychological Health on campus or online.

Shira Ledani can be reached at [email protected] and Katherine Ferrante at [email protected]