A therapy dog is relieving academic stress at Oak Grove Elementary in Tampa.

  • Merlin is monthly visitor at Oak Grove Elementary
  • Student anxiety, aggressive behavior has decreased, teacher says
  • Goal is to help stress levels go down, grades go up

Each month, Merlin visits the school on the 6300 block of North Armenia Avenue.

The dog is there to help students who need extra support.

"If I'm mad and I touch him, he calms me down," fifth-grader Tony Corbett said after playing with Merlin.

Teacher Anna Gibbs said she has seen a decrease in anxiety and aggressive behaviors in her classroom since Merlin started coming to the school.

"It empowers them (the students) to have some sort of control in their lives," Gibbs said. "And Merlin can also be scared, so when they're watching Merlin overcome his fears, they can return relate it to their own lives and say, 'Oh I'm scared, Merlin can overcome this, so I can overcome my fear,'" Gibbs said.

Merlin started visiting Oak Grove's fourth and fifth-graders at the beginning of the school year.

Gibbs said she has seen stress levels go down and student scores go up because of Merlin's visits.

"They're able to focus when they're stress levels are down," Gibbs said. "They're able to focus more on their school work and have more academic achievement when they are less stressed and less anxious."