Photo by Jordan Johnson

Students had a variety of dogs to choose from in order to relieve stress at Cobeen’s CPC event.

As the last week of class rolls around, Marquette students like Madeline Tucker, a sophomore in the College of Education, are busy thinking up ways to keep the student community calm. Tucker is on the Community Programming Council for Cobeen Hall that hosts events in Cobeen related to education and finals week. And for one special day this semester, the CPC decided to bring some beloved therapy dogs.

Bringing the dogs in gave students a chance to walk and pet the furry animals. The event’s furry friends were dressed in fun costumes ranging from dragons to princesses. All of the dogs outside of the building were either poodles, weiner dogs or Havaneses ready to be given some attention by the eager students. 

“It’s one of the last big weeks before finals, so a lot of students have tons of homework, papers and even last minute tests. The Community Programming Council was thinking of ways that the Cobeen residents could de-stress, even though the event was open to everyone who wanted to come,” Tucker said.

Tucker had met Mary Jane, a Marquette alumna who works with the therapy dogs, at an event for the College of Education at Marquette. After talking to Jane and learning about her work with the dogs, Tucker pitched the idea of bringing the pups in to her peers on the CPC and was met with resounding approval.

From there, the group had to find a time and date for the event that could fit into both Jane’s and students’ schedules. Thankfully for the council, everything seemed to fall into place during planning.

“Luckily the weather even turned out great, too,” Tucker said.

The dogs that studded the event belonged to Mary Jane and her husband. Jane and her husband are both Marquette alumni and have three children. While their family has always been fond of dogs, Jane said she got the idea for training therapy dogs to help students after her son was away at college.

“We’ve been raising dogs since my children were little, so we’ve always loved them,”Jane said, “My son would always call from school at Georgetown saying that he missed our dog at home.” 

Occasionally, Jane is accompanied to these events by her two good friends from college, including Mark Haertlin who graduated from Marquette with a journalism major in ’72. The pair also went to grade school together.

“Mary will call me when she is doing dog events and I will come along,” Haertlin said. “We have worked together for years, even bringing the dogs to parades.”

Another member of the Cobeen CPC is Jessie Teddy, a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences. Teddy helped out with the event and agreed that bringing in the cheerful dogs would be a great idea for the Cobeen residents as well as any other student wanting to stop by.

“Having these dressed up dogs here right outside of the building was really fun and definitely an amazing idea to keep Marquette students less stressed and help them push through these last couple of weeks,” Teddy said. “This was a great event.”

Ania Dabrowska, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, said she was amazed when she walked out of Carpenter Hall across from Cobeen and saw the dressed-up dogs running around and having a great time.

“Walking outside and seeing all of those dogs was like walking into heaven,” Dabrowska said. “It was a great surprise to see all the happy, furry animals and it really put me in a really positive attitude.”

For the Cobeen CPC and animal lovers in attendance, the event was a furry and fun success.