A few furry additions to campus are ready to play kissy-face with anyone who crosses their paths.

And when the students aren’t there to play, these little therapy dogs are just as content chasing the squirrels around campus.

As a part of the Animal Assisted Crisis Response – a national nonprofit organization out of Eugene, Ore. – therapy dogs from around the United States have been sent to campus in an effort to take students’ minds off the recent tragedy.

Cindy Ehlers of Eugene, joined animal crisis response in 1998 after a high school shooting in Oregon.

“I went there [with] a therapy dog team and saw the impact it could have on a larger scale than my own [benefit],” Ehlers said.

NIU is hosting eight therapy dog teams, with two more on the way. The teams will be here until Saturday.

Students seem to be enjoying having the dogs on campus, Ehlers said.

“The students really appreciate having the dogs here,” Ehlers said. “They wish [the dogs] could be here all the time.”

The therapy dog teams have come to DeKalb from Oregon, Kentucky, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan and Minnesota. This is the first time some of the teams are meeting each other, she said.

The goal of Animal Assisted Crisis Response is to “train the dog teams in every state so when something like this happens, we have people in that state” while also pulling resources from surrounding states, Ehlers said.

Ehlers said she hopes the animal therapy will continue in DeKalb after the Animal Assisted Crisis Response teams leave.

Before the teams leave, they would “like to do a quick crash training with therapy dogs in the area,” she said.

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