Students who are away from home for the first time often miss their families, friends and pets.
The traditional cures for homesickness, of course, are a phone call or a trip home.
But Fido can’t talk on the phone.
So students who miss their beloved pets can turn to the MSU Small Animal Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
The hospital has a program that lets people check out a dog to walk for half an hour during the hospital’s normal business hours, from 8 a.m.-5 p.m, Monday-Friday.
Gretchen McDaniel, who has worked as a vet technician for about 18 years, said the free program began gradually, with a few students coming in and asking if there were any dogs they could walk.
McDaniel said the clinic can’t allow people’s ill pets to be sent out, but there are about six to 10 dogs used as blood donors that live there.
“That’s kind of how it started,” she said. “Eventually word got around. It seemed like everybody found out about it.
“When we started getting more phone calls, we decided to make some rules.”
The clinic asks people to leave their identification and remain on campus while walking a dog. Dog-walkers also cannot ride a bike or in-line skate with their temporary companion.
“You can’t let the dog off the leash - some people want to do that,” McDaniel said.
Although the program is on campus, McDaniel said it isn’t limited to students. McDaniel couldn’t estimate how many people walk dogs, but said it varies.
“Some days they’ll go out over and over again,” she said. “Some days nobody comes.”
The dogs still get their needed exercise, though.
“Some people here in the clinic walk them at least three times a day,” McDaniel said. “But it’s good for them to meet strangers and be around different people.”
Still, the program can sometimes be too popular.
“Some days you’ll have people come in groups of four and five, (and) that will happen several times in one day,” McDaniel said. “A lot of people on campus know about it.”
Ryan Conroy said he learned about the program during academic orientation, but not many people were paying attention.
“I’ve done it a million times, it’s great,” the telecommunication junior said.
Conroy said walking the dogs helps relieve stress in addition to homesickness.
“The dogs they have are so rambunctious that you end up playing with them,” he said.
McDaniel said people are surprised when they’re told there aren’t any dogs to walk.
“I think people have this mistaken idea that we have a giant kennel full of dogs, but we don’t,” she said.
The dogs only are kept for about a year, when they find homes with vet students or staff members.
McDaniel said sometimes the dog-walkers themselves even end up taking a dog home.
