By Mia Stephens 

As athletes participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics, coaches and their teams are not just thinking about the physical challenges of each sport, there’s a mental game at play too. In June, the world met the USA Gymnastics team's busiest volunteer, Beacon, a therapy dog who was brought to the Olympic trials to help alleviate stress during the high-stakes competitions. 

Nancy Gee, Ph.D., C-AISS, professor of psychiatry and the director of the Center for Human-Animal Interaction at VCU and Bill Balaban Chair in Human-Animal Interaction, is no stranger to the therapeutic benefits dogs can have on patients and athletes alike.  

“When I was a Division I athlete on scholarship myself, interacting with a dog was very relaxing. It took me away from the concerns that I was dealing with at the time,” said Gee, who played basketball at Washington State University as a student. 

Gee has been studying the interactions between therapy dogs and humans for more than two decades and leads the Dogs on Call program at VCU, which started in 2001. While more research needs to be done on the specific therapy interventions between athletes and dogs, Gee says recent studies show that a pet makes a difference during high stress activities.  

“Their blood pressure does not increase as much compared to people who do the same stressful activity without a pet present,” she explained. “For athletes, it's likely to be similar. Having a dog could buffer the ongoing stress and help reduce the impact of previous stressors.” 

Gee spoke with VCU Health News about the role therapy dogs can play with athletes in relieving stress and increasing motivation.

Therapy dogs don't just reduce stress and decrease blood pressure. VCU experts say they can also help people from different backgrounds connect with each other. (Thomas Kojcsich, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

What are some of the stress factors competitive athletes face?

According to a study published by the National Institutes of Health in May 2020, stress is a two-way street for athletes. The first stressor is performance-related. When an athlete receives an unfair call from a referee, is injured playing and in pain, or receives a negative comment from others, blood pressure can begin to rise. The second type of stress is coach-related; which can include arguing with a coach, a coach being upset with them, or an athlete feeling they have been treated unfairly by their coach. 

Off the field, the stress of academic performance can take a toll on student athletes. Missing class for sporting events, struggling to study, or taking time out to recover from injuries can cause increased anxiety.  

All these stressors can diminish an athlete’s sense of accomplishment, leading to burnout.   

How would a therapy dog help athletes in these types of high stress environments?

While some studies have been done, little is known about the effects of therapy dogs on athletes, specifically. Interacting with therapy dogs has been shown to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, reduce cortisol, and increase oxytocin – the bonding hormone. Interactions with them tend to elevate our mood and have some short-term positive psychological effects. 

We received positive feedback from the women’s lacrosse team when we had a Dogs on Call dog and handler team regularly visiting them. They found it motivational, and really appreciated having the dog there, but we also have to consider that there may be some superstitious behavior in the mix. It’s possible that athletes may think “this is our lucky dog” and if we all pet the dog we will go out and get a win. Frankly, I don’t see any harm in that. 

When we worry too much, it interferes with our executive functioning. This includes memory, problem-solving, and focus. For an athlete, it's important to inhibit off-task thoughts and to be present in the moment. Dogs pretty much always live in the moment, so they may help athletes do the same thing. By sitting down with a dog and not worrying about anything else, we can get a mental break and refocus on the present. 

How do therapy dogs determine when someone may need their support?

Through domestication, dogs have become highly adept at socializing with humans. They can communicate using complex cues and form complex attachment relationships with humans. 

Dogs have a keen sense of smell and a unique ability to read a human’s body language. They are good at sensing human emotions and stress, and their senses are so acute that they can also detect things like cancers and the beginning of a seizure. 

Dogs may have some motivation to alleviate stress in those around them. It has historically been a benefit to them to ensuring that everybody is calm and relaxed, because if not, there may be reason for them to be concerned about their own safety. Simply put, they have become very good at reading those signs.  

What happens during a session with a therapy dog?

Sessions are unscripted, usually involve a person petting the dog, and are frequently driven by the actions of the dog. They may lean into the person, lay down, roll over on their back, or they may nudge the person's hand to get them to pet them. If there are toys present and the dog is toy motivated, they may pick up a game or interact with the toys. 

Oftentimes, we see people start a conversation either directly with the dog or with the handler. These conversations tend to be very light, relaxed, about animals, or focused on the animal that is present. 

Dogs are considered a social lubricant. They get people to talk, usually about benign topics such as their own dog or previous dogs they may have had. They have been called “the great leveler” because the topics of conversation tend to be “safe” topics, for example not politics or religion, which allows people from diverse backgrounds to connect.  

Whatever the underlying mechanisms are, research is showing these positive effects of interacting with therapy animals in a wide variety of settings, from hospitals to nursing homes to college students. 

What are some of the health benefits of working with therapy dogs?

With adolescents, there are psychiatric benefits to working with a therapy dog. These include reductions in PTSD symptoms, emotional and behavioral anger, and anxiety. Importantly, they are more willing to talk, attend and participate in the therapeutic environment. 

For adults and for older adults, researchers have observed reductions in depression, loneliness, anxiety, and improvements in mood.  

Can you tell us about the dogs in the Dogs on Call program?

Our Dogs on Call program serves both VCU and VCU Health, and we consider the dogs to be our partners in the process. Our handlers train them using reward-based methods and the dogs are given the choice of whether to interact with a person. Our amazing volunteer handlers are key. Their job in those interactions is to focus their attention on their dog and watch their dog for animal welfare issues, or for any sign of stress or discomfort and to intervene immediately on their behalf. That may mean the dog just needs a little exercise break outside. 

Through the entire process the dogs get lots of treats, praise and at the end of the day, these dogs love it. We want them to willingly participate and enjoy doing that. The handlers usually just stand back out of the way and let the dog engage with people, and the dogs love that because they're interacting with people on their terms.