“It’s been a huge part of my stress relief throughout my degree” – Amelia
UBC Vancouver’s The Ubyssey recently interviewed Dr. Binfet alongside student volunteers, Mikaela and Amelia, about the B.A.R.K. program! The article focused on how the B.A.R.K. program came to fruition and what it means to the UBC community.
After walking his dog through campus and seeing students flock to him, Dr. Binfet knew he “needed to create a program opportunity for students to interact with dogs.” Entering its 13th year on campus, the B.A.R.K. program hosts weekly opportunities for students to interact with therapy dogs and handlers through a Friday Drop-in program and the BARK2Go program on Wednesday afternoons. Introduced with just 12 dogs in 2013, B.A.R.K. now sees 64 therapy-dog handler teams supporting student stress reduction and improve general well-being.
“It’s created this very strong sense of community – everyone can be brought together through dogs” – Mikaela
Alongside programming for students and staff on campus, B.A.R.K. is also an active research hub contributing to the field of human-animal interactions and providing an opportunity for undergraduates to get involved in research. Highlighted in this article were B.A.R.K.’s recent canine contact and virtual canine studies. Touch and direct contact with therapy dogs were found to be key, but B.A.R.K. was also still able to help students’ well-being through the pandemic with virtual interventions. Through this research and innovation, the program and its impact on the student body continues to grow.
Thank you to The Ubyssey for this feature!
Photograph by Freya Green.