Airport Therapy Dogs, The Way to Get Rid of Anxiety?

Whether you’re a frequent flyer or a first time flyer, a flying phobia can be stressful or give/trigger anxiety.

A phobia is an intense fear that is out of proportion to the danger, which is particularly relevant to fears of flying.

Now a day’s many people have a phobia, or get anxious/nervous prior to getting on an airplane for a flight. Whether it’s a fear of height, claustrophobia, previously experiencing a “bad flight”, or hearing about bad events, the feeling of being uneasy is… well uneasy. Many people try to find ways that help them cope and relax before a flight by having a few drinks or taking a sleeping pill. Although these can help some people, it can also backfire and make the situation worsen.

Excessive drinking has well-documented negative effects, among them the possibility of violent behavior that can get you into really bad trouble (as in: fines/damages, or even jail time) on a plane. Flying makes you dehydrated as well, so drinking makes it 100 times worse. If you want to try the sleeping pill way, you have somethings to consider. First off, how long will the flight be? Sleeping pills are meant to wear off after eight hours, but the drowsiness can last for much longer if you take too high a dose. If you don’t take them at the right time you can end up staying awake when they should kick in and then you’d have a groggy tired flight.

Bring in the DOGs!

Imagine being at the airport. Maybe you’ve missed your flight, the flight was delayed or you just have a fear of flying. Then down the hall you see a tail wagging pup who’s wearing a brightly colored vests emblazoned with “Pet me!” strolling through the airport. You go up to the pup, or they come up to you, then the anxiety and stress that was building up withers away after petting, hugging or kissing the dog for a bit. Studies find that interacting with a therapy dog has numerous benefits to human health and well-being. Simply petting a dog can lower people’s blood pressure and reduce stress and anxiety.

You don’t have to imagine it, it’s happening in about 50 airports already! Many airports have their own name for the program, but the overall mission of the programs are having on-site teams of certified therapy dogs in hope it would help ease travelers’ anxieties. Airport therapy dogs come in all sizes and breeds but the thing they have in common is that they’re all certified by one of the country’s therapy-dog organizations; for example, Charlotte and LAX use teams certified by the Alliance of Therapy Dogs.

Therapy teams don’t always just wander around, they get called upon to calm passengers when things don’t go as planned, such as missing a flight or the flight being delayed. So the plane is delayed… you’re stressed and annoyed, then a cut little pup comes up to you, and after 15 minutes of playing is when you realize you aren’t thinking about anything stressful or anxiety-provoking.

Plus how many times can you go up to a random dog and hug them knowing you’re in no danger and they are therapy certified.

Whether you hate flying or don’t mind it, seeing a dog at the airport will definitely take your mind off it!

Make sure you have all the travel documents you need before you get to the airport to eliminate one more thing that could make you stressed!

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Its #NationalDogDay! If you’re traveling make sure to be on the lookout for Airport Therapy Dogs! https://t.co/FWv1gOduIt pic.twitter.com/7AFhCLFuVU

— Sundance Vacations (@travelsundance) August 26, 2017