Paw Pause

19/09/2026

15/09/2026

Paw Pause are on the Flying Start Preschool Boost Menu. Please contact us today to secure your sessions 🐾 www.pawpause.com.au

09/09/2026

Contact Paw Pause today to book and confirm your preschool’s 2027 Flying Start sessions. Limited capacity still available.
Get in quick 🐾

www.pawpause.com.au

08/09/2026

02/09/2026

Eddie has had enough of the cooler weather and is looking forward to attending a few conferences and educational sites in the Northern states again soon. If your site hasn’t contacted us yet, please do. Bookings now open for Term 1, 2027 🐾

28/08/2026

Happy 8th birthday to our CEO and main man Eddie 🎂🌟

25/08/2026

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Research Spotlight | Animal-Assisted Services & Student Mental Health

Can spending time with an animal make a measurable difference to the mental health of university and higher education students?

A systematic review and meta-analysis by Huber and colleagues provides encouraging evidence that it can.

Researchers examined 35 randomised controlled trials investigating animal-assisted services for higher education students. Almost all of the studies involved dogs, and most were assessed as being of moderate methodological quality.

What did they find?

The clearest benefits were for mental health, particularly:

• reduced acute anxiety
• reduced stress
• smaller but beneficial effects across other mental health outcomes.

The authors concluded that animal-assisted services in higher education settings can be effective in improving students’ mental health and appear particularly effective for reducing acute feelings of anxiety and stress.

For universities and other higher education providers, this research adds to the evidence supporting thoughtfully designed animal-assisted programs as one potential strategy for supporting student wellbeing and mental health.

Research: Huber A, Klug SJ, Abraham A, et al. Animal-Assisted Interventions Improve Mental, But Not Cognitive or Physiological Health Outcomes of Higher Education Students: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 22, 1597–1628. The article was first published online in November 2022 and appeared in Volume 22 in 2024.

Read the open-access research
⁠ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11469-022-00945-4