Mental Health

Can Puppies Help Students Ace Exams?

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: Apr 04, 2013 01:46 PM EDT

Can some puppy love help students ace their exams? UK educators at Aberdeen University seem to think so.

Undergraduates at the university in Scotland can now take a break and recharge in a special "puppy room" during next month's four-day exam period.

Aberdeen University's president of societies and student activities, Emma Carlen, said that the school has decided to use puppies to help students relieve stress after a successful trial run in February with golden retrievers and Labradors, according to The Telegraph.

"We got a really positive reaction to that from the guide dogs and the students," she said, according to The Telegraph. "It really chilled them out, so that encouraged us to get this set up for the exam period."

Students will now be able to fight off stress by going into the university's special puppy room to pet puppies.

Puppies for stress relief are nothing new.  Universities in the U.S. and Canada have already started their own puppy program. Prestigious universities like Harvard Medical School and Yale Law School have dogs on campus students can borrow like library books.

Carlen said the sessions early this year with Guide Dogs Scotland helped students relax during exam time, which, for most students, is the most stressful period of the academic year. Carlen has high hopes that the puppy program can help students get better grades.

"Hopefully we can boost their health and grades. We also hand out advice on what to eat and drink," she said.

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