Comfort dogs are greeting Uvalde students for their return to school. Here’s how canine visitors can help after tragedy

CNN — For some students in the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District in Texas, the start of classes this week came with feelings of fear and anxiety. As parents in Uvalde, Texas, dropped their children off at school Tuesday morning, some students did not want to get out of the car – but 10 golden retrievers from all across the country who work as comfort dogs were on site, helping ease nerves and provide a distraction, said Bonnie Fear, crisis response coordinator for the Lutheran Church Charities K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry. So we placed the dogs outside, and I do believe that that did help some of the kids see that dog and go, ‘OK, well, I’m going to go pet the dog,’ ” said Fear, whose team also provided support to the community immediately after the shooting in May. “We know empathy of dogs isn’t the whole story though as people find comfort even in stuffed animals, pictures of animals, and even robotic animals.” As for Uvalde, Meyers-Manor added that she thinks comfort dogs can help community members, especially children, in times of stress and anxiety – but it is important to keep in mind that some children might be allergic to or scared of dogs. “When used as an optional part of the school day though, I think they can bring some joy to the children.” An area of emerging research Scientific literature about comfort dogs dates to the 1950s and ’60s, when American psychologist Boris Levinson presented a paper to the American Psychological Association in New York City about how “the importance of the house pet” to humans was “psychological rather than practical.” “He was a counselor of some sort.