Beyond the Leash: Exploring the Public Health Dimension of Facility Dog Handler Experiences in Military Graduate Education

Facility dogs are increasingly incorporated throughout higher-education institutions as integrative conduits for supporting students by reducing stress, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion. While these programs are designed to enhance student well-being, little is known about the experiences of the handlers who train, care for, and work with these dogs—specifically within military-affiliated programs. The handlers’ role necessitates a unique dynamic of caregiving, emotional labor, and professional responsibility and management that can create role conflict and additional stress among those graduate students who dedicate their time to the working dogs. Despite the growing presence of animal-assisted interventions in university settings, handler experiences in military graduate contexts are largely unexplored. In an effort to establish ethical and sustainable animal-assisted interventions and facility dog programs that contribute to population-level mental-health resilience and institutional public health, there must be greater understanding of the demands and implications of the handler’s workload to develop sustainability. Therefore, this paper highlights the need for qualitative inquiry to explore the intersection of handler experience and educational responsibilities, as integrated into the military environment.