A new study examining the stress levels of working canines provides some reassuring results.

If you're a dog lover, just being with your pet feels good. So it's no surprise that therapy dogs are healing companions for people with health conditions such as cancer, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and dementia. There are over 50,000 therapy dogs in the United States, and they're becoming more popular in countries from Norway to Brazil. Trained and certified by a variety of organizations, these dogs and their handlers go into hospitals and other facilities and interact with patients.
 Research confirms that the benefits of pet therapy are real—but what do dogs think about helping humans? Science has considered this question too, and the results are reassuring.
A recent study in Applied Animal Behaviour Science reports that therapy dogs in pediatric cancer wards are not stressed by their "work," and in fact seem to enjoy it in most cases.
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