Linguistics freshman Kai Barclay sets a few alarms to get out of bed in the morning, but her most reliable alarm is her dog, Oliver.

With the morning light streaming in through the windows of Barclay’s dorm, Oliver, an excitable boxer mix, will crawl into her bed when he hears her first alarm go off. He’ll rest his head on her shoulder, and she’ll rest her eyes for a few more minutes. When he hears the second alarm, he’ll start to nudge her out from under the covers, so the two of them can get up, eat breakfast and head to class.

Where Barclay goes, so does Oliver. He’s registered as an emotional support animal, so he attends classes with Barclay and sleeps in the residence halls with her. Oliver is a source of comfort and support for Barclay, who deals with anxiety and depression.

“If I’m in class and he can tell I’m a little stressed, he can tell, and he’ll crawl up onto my lap — just his front paws — so I can hug him,” Barclay said. “He’s good at picking up on my emotions a lot of the time.”

She adopted Oliver from an animal shelter last November, after being particularly homesick and lonely for the first few months of her freshman year. She’d noticed that a friend, chemical biosciences freshman Beth Taylor, had a dog — aptly named Boomer — who lived with her in the dorms as an emotional support animal. Taylor guided Barclay through the process of registering Oliver as an emotional support animal to help her cope with anxiety.

Barclay and Taylor both went through the OU Disability Resource Center to ensure that their dogs could live with them in the residence halls.

According to the OU Disability Resource Center’s website, federal law allows students to keep an assistance animal in university housing if the student has a disability, the animal is necessary to give the student an equal opportunity to live in and enjoy university housing and there is a definitive correlation between the student’s disability and the assistance the animal provides.

With a health care provider’s documentation of the student’s disability and the assistance the animal provides, the student can keep an animal in the residence halls with them, so long as it’s not disruptive.

Unlike Barclay, Taylor’s only roommate is her dog. After registering with the OU Disability Resource Center, she received permission for the two to live in a single dorm in Walker tower. Taylor adopted Boomer from a shelter in Oklahoma City near the end of her senior year of high school. She doesn’t like to be alone, and Boomer can always be with her.

Though most people respond well to seeing Boomer, Taylor said that some people see him as an invitation to ask overly personal questions.

“There are people who walk up and pet my dog and say, ‘So, what’s your problem?’” Taylor said. “And I don’t know how to answer that.”

Boomer is on his way to being trained as a service dog. Taylor, who has epilepsy, wants to train him to warn her when she is about to have a seizure. Similarly, Barclay is training her dog, Oliver, as a psychiatric service animal.

Last Thursday, the University of Rhode Island’s student newspaper, The Good 5 Cent Cigar, published a lighthearted feature on one of the university’s janitors and his therapy dog, a husky named Ivy. This week, Ivy was ordered off campus by the university’s department of housing and residential life.

Ivy’s owner, Mike LaPolice, said that he was happy about the article at first — he was excited for more students to know about the positive effect therapy dogs like Ivy can have on college students. But when he was approached by university housing staff, and they demanded to take Ivy home and forgo the day’s pay on Thursday, LaPolice was shocked.

“I never thought this would happen,” LaPolice said in an interview with The Good 5 Cent Cigar.

University of Rhode Island students attested to Ivy’s calming effect. One student noted that Ivy seemed to sense when he was upset and comforted him.

Barclay said that while Oliver isn’t a therapy dog, her friends and peers often ask to pet Oliver and spend time with him when they’re stressed. Recognizing the therapeutic effect Oliver’s presence has on them, she always says yes.

For her, it’s simple.

“Dogs just make people happy,” Barclay said. “That’s pretty much their goal in life.”

Reposted with permission from: http://www.oudaily.com/news/two-ou-students-seek-comfort-through-emotional-support-animals/article_cd9991a0-e7cf-11e4-981c-1f64388ae245.html