Waking up at 10 a.m. is a luxury for many college students. 8 a.m. classes, studying for exams and other responsibilities force many college students out of bed much earlier than they would like.

University of Miami sophomore Ella Green was lucky enough that her schedule allowed her to wake up later than most college students. That is until she fell in love with a black schnauzer poodle mix puppy named Mochi.

Green grew up with dogs and got her first dog when she was 3 years old. The second came when she was 8 years old. At home Green shared dog responsibilities with her brother. “It was definitely more of a family effort,” she said.

Lexi Mnich, a senior at the University of Miami, also grew up sharing pet owning responsibilities with family members. Mnich grew up on a farm in Connecticut that has alpacas, chickens and three farm dogs.

“I used to have the dogs in the house and my parents would walk them and go to the bathroom and feed them” she said. Now that responsibility is entirely on Mnich.

“Now it’s like having a kid, but a fun kid,” she said. Mnich is usually up between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and takes her dog Rocket out for his morning walk.

While the dog does come with an earlier wake up time and a slightly stricter daily routine, Mnich knew that as soon as she moved off campus she would be getting a pet. During her sophomore year living on campus, Mnich’s neighbor had an emotional support cat who would come and scratch on Mnich’s door and liked to play fetch.

“That’s when I was like ‘I need to get an animal’,” she said. While Mnich had previously lived on campus, if she wanted a pet she had to move off campus. To have a pet on campus at the University of Miami, they must be a registered emotional support animal.

Luckily Mnich had no trouble finding an apartment that was pet friendly. During winter break of her junior year, Mnich went to a rescue called Twilight Tails and got her dog Rocket, who is a chihuahua, cattle dog mix.

For Green, even though she grew up with dogs, getting a dog was a more spontaneous choice.

“It literally happened within three days,” she said. She lives alone, and was starting to feel lonely, and a dog was the first solution that came to mind. Green went to Miami Dade Animal Shelter and was able to bring Mochi home.

However, having her own dog came with new responsibilities and a new daily routine. Gone are the days of waking up at 10 a.m. Now Mochi is ready to start his day around seven or eight in the morning.

“He wakes up very early. That’s probably the most difficult part, a little too early for me,” she said. Her late afternoons are now reserved for long walks once the heat has ebbed. “Neither of us like the heat,” she said.

Even Green’s class registration, which is stressful enough as is, was affected by her new puppy.

“I did purposely keep him in mind when I was choosing classes,” she said.

Since Mochi is only a few months old, leaving him alone in the apartment for hours on end, is simply not an option for Green right now.

Mnich on the other hand has a little more freedom when it comes to class registration.

“I know he’s not going to have any accidents…but it’s definitely something you need to think about when you’re planning classes,” she said. Mnich’s bigger conflict is her involvement with Category 5.

Her involvement with this club requires her to attend sporting events, and the football games in particular were tough, as Mnich would be gone for eight hours at a time. In this case she needed to get outside help through Rover, an app that helps busy individuals make sure their pets are taken care of by providing pet boarding, dog walking and even drop-in visits.

Mnich was able to find a sitter through there and meet her before the first football game. The sitter would come for an hour while Mnich was working and let Rocket out and play with him. “I just used the same lady over and over,” she said.

While Mnich had outside help on football game days, she usually doesn’t leave Rocket with a stranger, even when she goes home for weekends. Recently, she went home for Easter and while some students might leave the dog with a friend or at a kennel, Mnich took Rocket on the plane with her. “He’s usually pretty good,” she said. “Some whines, but otherwise he sleeps”.

Even though having a dog has come with many more responsibilities for Mnich, she’s glad to have Rocket around. “He’s a good companion so if I’m like ever stressed, he knows and he’ll just sit next to me while I’m doing work,” she said.

Finding comfort in pets is common among college students, but unfortunately not all are able to work a pet into their busy schedules. Anika Markan, a University of Miami junior, got a dog in the spring of her eighth grade year. The youngest of three, and with Markan’s older sister heading off to college, Markan and her parents agreed that a dog would help keep Markan company as an “only child”.

Jaclyn Torn, also a junior at the University of Miami, had a similar situation. Also the youngest of three, Torn convinced her parents that she needed a dog to keep her company once her brother went to college.

Since she was the only child at home, Markan had more responsibilities with the family dog, Nike, including feeding him, taking him outside and taking him to the dog park. Torn similarly was always in charge of walking her dog Murphy, but her dad was always in charge of feeding him.

Both Markan and Torn found that when they came to college, they missed having their furry companions around.

“It was definitely very difficult to adjust to not having Nike around all of the time anymore. He’s a part of my family so it’s just like missing a family member,” she said.

“I hate not being near my dogs,” said Torn. “They really help with my anxiety and depression.”

Even though Markan feels as though a dog is missing from her life, her schedule just doesn’t allow her to get a dog.

“My roommates and I have joked about getting a dog before, but we all know that we wouldn’t have the time to actually dedicate to caring for a dog and giving them the love that they need,” Markan said. Torn on the other hand is in a five year program and plans to get a dog in the next few years.

“I’m hoping by fifth year I can get my own dog that can travel with me and be my ESA for my issues,” Torn said.

Even though Markan wishes she could have a dog with her, she finds comfort and joy in seeing dogs around campus and around her apartment building.

“They just have such a comforting presence and are so cute,” she said. Torn also loves being able to see dogs around campus and her apartment building. “They give me immediate serotonin and dopamine when I see them,” she said.

It’s no surprise that both Torn and Markan feel a lot of joy when they see dogs around campus. Emily Thelwell, who is currently a PhD student at Warwick Medical School, conducted a study, in October of 2019, on the benefits of pets and animals on college students.

When conducting her study, Thelwell had two test groups. One group simply watched videos of a dog, while the other group interacted directly with a dog. Thelwell found that participants in both groups experienced reduced anxiety and an improvement in their moods.

The results of Thelwell’s study are particularly important when it comes to mental health in college students. Both Torn and Markan mentioned that their moods improve when seeing dogs around campus and Torn also mentioned that being home with her dogs during the pandemic was a big help.

“I actually loved the lockdown with Covid because it meant I could do school from home for a time and doing the work with my dogs helped me a lot,” she said.

Torn has struggled with her mental health in the past, as do many college students. The American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment from Fall 2018 found that 63% of college students had felt overwhelmed in the past year and that 23% had received professional help for anxiety.

These feelings only worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic. A study done by Igor Chirikov from UCLA, Krista M Soria, Bonnie Horgos and Daniel Jones-White, all from the University of Minnesota, found that one-third to tw0- fifths of students “screened positive for major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder” during the pandemic.

Some colleges around the country have taken note of their student’s mental health and the benefits of pet therapy and have implemented their own pet therapy programs for students. The University of Pittsburgh has weekly therapy dog events, where volunteers from the local humane society bring their registered therapy dogs to campus. Students are able to play and interact with the dogs to relieve stress and take a break from studying.

St. Thomas University also recognized the importance of pets and animals to improve mental health. During finals in December 2021, the university brought in therapy dogs and a petting zoo to allow students to destress and relieve anxiety before finals.