PANIC PUPS

Anxiety and Dogs

Irene Han, Cassidy Samuelson, Zoë Delgado, Faith Gandy


Overview of Issue

There are a lot of people who are suffering from different kind of mental disorders and
they are not easy to overcome perfectly. According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness
(NAMI), 1 in 5 children living in the United States experience a mental health condition, such as
anxiety or depression (“NAMI Ending The Silence”). Not only does it affect around 20% of the
whole population, there also would be more people who have experienced or are experiencing
slight anxiety in their lives, due to school work, family, or social relationships. Since many
people experience and suffer from anxiety, we should acknowledge that anxiety is not a simple
problem, but a serious issue.

Psychological therapy is helpful. Having pets, such as dogs, is also a great idea. The
Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) partnered with Cohen Research Group and
conducted an online survey of 2,000 pet owners, which measured what pet owners think about
having dogs. The survey describes that about 86% of the pet owners were aware that pets reduce
stress, depression, and anxiety, and over 74% of them actually experienced mental health
improvements from pet ownership (“Survey: Pet Owners and the Human-Animal Bond”). For
instance, by receiving unconditional love and hugs from your dog, and working out with your
dog, mental and physical health can be improved. Also, just by having pets, you will have the
responsibility to take care of them and will feel good about doing good.

Mission Statement and Philosophy

Panic Pups will create a safe space for teens with anxiety in high schools where they can
recover from a panic or anxiety attack, or just de-stress after a difficult day at school.

We are an organization made up of four high school students. Many may look down on us
because of our lack of experience, but when it truly comes down to it, we are some of the best
people to address this topic. We are right in the middle of the problem, and we have come up
with a solution. We are the ones affected by anxiety disorders. Two out of the four of us have
been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Therefore, we have experienced the feeling of panic
when having an anxiety attack with nowhere to go to calm down. We have had to hide in the
bathroom on multiple occasions just to escape the overwhelming atmosphere that high school
creates.

Because we have faced this problem head on, we want to make a difference. We want to
create a place where a student can hide from the outside world and have a chance to calm down.
What better way to do that than with a bunch of dogs? Not only will we create a place for
students to calm down, but we also want to give them the means to calm down. We can provide
students with resources, such as dogs, that are proven to lower stress and calm anxiety. This way
we can do more than provide a place to hide. We can help them fight back the anxious feelings
they experience.
 We want to keep others from experiencing the stress that we have personally experienced,
and provide them with a solution. We will give them the outlet and safe-haven that we wish we
had. No one deserves to struggle the way we have, and we want to take steps towards a solution.

Action Plan

Our immediate plan is to make a difference in one school. After we accomplish this and
we learn what works and what doesn’t, we plan to expand Panic Pups. Our long terms goal is to
have panic pup rooms in schools all across the nation! For now, however, we want to build a
prototype in our own school. This prototype will consist of six dogs, all acquired from a shelter,
dog toys, comfortable chairs, puppy pads, and more!

With these spaces, we expect teens to be more willing to go to school everyday. We hope
that these rooms will make the idea of school a bit less daunting, and much more manageable.
We are not in any way trying to cure these teens’ anxiety, we just want to give them the ability to
gather themselves and recover. That is why we are different. We aren’t trying to “fix” them; we
just want to help them feel safer when going to school. We are not the first to do this. Similar
groups, such as Beyond Blue, tackle this issue by working to bring awareness to the quickly
increasing epidemic known as anxiety ("Beyond Blue Campaign"). We did not come up with the
idea of the "puppy room" on our own. Universities in both the United States and Canada are
bringing in therapy dogs to their respective schools to assist in the great stresses found in most, if
not all, universities. An example of one of these schools is Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova
Scotia. They have set up a puppy room during the week in which students take their finals to
help them de-stress. Many students have fallen in love with the concept and have reaped the
benefits ("'Puppy Rooms'"). This is what we want to create within high schools, but we need
your help.

Not only do we have a GoFundMe campaign and are spreading the word on social media,
but we also plan on setting up donation buckets in our school and other schools in our area to
raise money for our cause. We will turn Panic Pups from the dream of a few high school students
into a real option for students at almost every school in the nation!

Financial Need

• Pet Sitter: $16.80/hr and for six hours is $100.80 • Bean bag refills: $100 per year
• Dog toys: about $13.51 each • Pee pads: $200 per year
• Treats: $25.77 (3) • 3 underdogs (older): $140 each/ $420
• 4 Food and Water Bowls: $8.80 • 3 younger dogs: $155 each/ $465
• Flooring: $5-10 per square foot • Dog training: $120 per dog/ $720
• 3 Beds: $105
• Glass wall: $25 per square foot adding a glass door add another $1,000
• 4 Bags of Dog Food: $200 per month
• 4 Bean Bag chairs: $400

Total: $7,221.32