It’s the first few weeks of classes and students are already dealing with a multitude of problems. The most common are stress, loneliness, homesickness, and even miss their beloved pets. What many students don’t realize is that they can get help with dealing with these problems before they develop into something more serious.
The counseling office here at Winona State is well renowned and is one of the best places to go for help. However, if counseling isn’t your thing or you’re just wanting to find stress relief, “Wednesday’s with Winston” is a great opportunity to interact with an animal. Winston is a certified pet therapy dog owned by, Winona State counselor, Lynda Brzezinski. You can find Winston in Room 222 (The Well) in the Integrated Wellness Center from 4:00-5:00p every Wednesday.
This last Wednesday I went in to see Winston and was happily surprised. There were about 10 students sitting around a giant beanbag and in the middle was a smiling pup. He seemed to be enjoying all the attention as students were smiling back at him. His handler Lynda was also grinning as I walked in the door to visit the therapy dog.
HC(HerCampus): How long have you been doing Wednesday’s with Winston? How long have you been doing therapy as a whole?
Lynda: It’s been almost four years now. He was trained at the age of one and he is now almost five years old. This is a smaller group today as I’ve had up to 60 people here at a time.
HC: What made you want to go into pet therapy? Or did you know you wanted to go into it?
Lynda: I didn’t know what pet therapy was at all until a few years ago. I had taken him to training and they tested him to see if he would make a good therapy dog, and he passed!
Then I thought, maybe I should look into this! I read lots of booking on animal assisted therapy and animal assisted counseling. I do counseling here at Winona so I decided to bring him here.
It’s amazing to see the students interact with him because that’s who I work with, they really seem to miss their dogs. The funny part is that they don’t really miss their parents; they miss their pets.
HC: I did pet therapy with my own dog and I know that they can’t be food driven and have to be well mannered, Winston obviously is that last part.
Lynda: Oh, well I can show you how good he is. Lynda then proceeds to place dog treats on each of his paws, saying “leave it” every so often. Winston sits stoically as she does so without trying to eat the treats. He then sits there for about ten seconds. She then gives him permission to eat the treats and he gratefully does so.
HC: So you talked about seeing reactions from the students, what’s that like?
Lynda: It’s so rewarding. I’ve had male students get down on the ground and kiss his head and nuzzle him. I get a lot of smiles and hear about how much students miss their pets. As you know, I work in counseling and I think that helps a lot of students go in. Some students email me saying that they want to see a counselor but are afraid, and Winston really seems to help make them more comfortable.
HC: Other than being a pet therapy dog, what does he get to do in his free-time?
Lynda: Winston loves sleeping on the couch. He also likes to steal toys from the other dogs. As alpha dog, out of 4 other dogs he does that pretty often. He loves playing fetch with his jolly ball, this big bouncy ball with a handle. Winston also loves to watch squirrels, so regular dog stuff.
One unique thing about him is that he loves listening to me play my harp. He just lays on the bed and listens, it’s the cutest thing. We also go for morning walks every day, but only two dogs at a time of course.