Meet the new paws waiting for you in the Dawg Lounge 

Rex and Jethro are the new Dawg Lounge support dogs waiting to see you on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the SIU Health Center.

According to the SIU website, the Dawg Lounge is a place for students to destress and relax including massage chairs, art, light therapy, yoga, meditation and the most popular support dogs.

Jethro, the pitbull, is the dog of Medical Lab supervisor Nikki Probst, who’s had Jethro since he adopted the dog from a shelter in 2015.

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“I had been looking for a dog for a while and it was just I kept going back to his picture and there was just something about him that just spoke to me,” Probst said. “When I went to go meet him, they [were] like ‘oh, yeah, he just hangs out the office all day he doesn’t do anything,’ like, he’s just he’s a very chill laid back dog. So I thought, okay, I’m gonna take him and they let me bring him home that day. I was not prepared.”

Probst said it took Jethro about six months to feel at home but only a few weeks to feel comfortable with her.

“The first day I got him, I immediately had to take him up to Petco to get a flea and tick bath because he was just covered,” Probst said. “While he’s doing that, we’ll get all the stuff he needs and he adjusted pretty good, but it just takes, it took him a bit to get adjusted. So but yeah, he now, he’s been a good, good boy to have.”

Last year, Probst said she saw the janitor’s dog Kevin in the Dawg Lounge and wondered how she could do that for Jethro.

“Well, how do I get, like, I’m like this would be perfect for Jethro, because he, he’s such a people dog and he just loves people,” Probst said. “So they were like, ‘oh, we have to talk to wellness because they’re over it.’”

She talked to Interim Director of Wellness and Health Promotion Services and Marketing Shelly Ridgway about getting Jethro in and agreed to do a trial run with him.

“He came in a couple of times just for a trial run to see how he would do and because he didn’t, he does, he’s not super vocal or anything like that,” Probst said. “They’re like, yeah, he’s working out great, so if he wants to continue coming, he can continue coming in. So he really, he’s loved it.”

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Probst said she’s heard that Jethro has a bit of a following and is very loved by everyone.

“Everybody’s always giving me compliments of how sweet he is and well-behaved. . . I’ve done absolutely no training with him. He just came like that,” Probst said. “When I come to pick him up at the end of the day, there’s, there are times that there are just, I call it, he has like a harem of girls that just surrounded him while he’s, like, laying on the floor and they’re all petting him. So he’s in seventh heaven here.”

Probst plans to bring Jethro as long as she can and as long as they let him come in.

“A lot of people ask if he’s an emotional support dog. He is not a registered emotional support dog or registered service dog of any kind. He’s just, he’s very intuitive,” Probst said. “He can tell when people, you know, when people don’t feel well, he can tell and he’s very much he’s just such a snuggler.”

Rex, the Goldendoodle, is the dog of Medical Chief of Staff Dr. Andrew Riffey who has had Rex since he was a puppy.

“My wife and I both grew up with dogs and we just love the concept of wanting to have a dog,” Riffey said. “It’s like, you know, it’d be a good thing and we have a son and at that time, he was little and it’d be a good time for him to be able to learn how to help take care of an animal.”

Riffey said Rex worked out with him and his family even though he was supposed to be a mini Goldendoodle, but they didn’t mind.

“He’s energetic, [and] loves everybody. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him meet a person or another animal he did not like,” Riffey said. “Loves to play, but is also very gentle when he needs to be. We’ve seen him play with kids as little as one year old.”

Rex is not a big fan of the rain and loves to destroy his toys at home. He also is very attached to his family.

“He’s most relaxed and has the most fun when we’re all home. If one of us isn’t home, he’s a little on edge,” Riffey said. “He just mopes around for a while, because it’s sad that everybody left, so I think his personality is just fantastic. He just wants to be a part of the family and be a part of everything.”

Riffey thought Rex would be good for the Dawg Lounge at a time when the number of dogs they had were decreasing.

“I knew how much students enjoyed coming in and they enjoy coming and seeing the dogs. I also knew Rex’s personality,” Riffey said. “Rex is getting older and I thought well maybe this would be something for him. It might help him feel younger, maybe even help him live a longer, more fulfilled life, really, to be honest.” 

He inquired to Ridgeway about bringing Rex in and she agreed. They brought Rex in for the trial run, and everyone loved him.

“He’s always waiting for the next person to come in the door,” Riffey said. “He hears the door open over there by the dawg lounge and he’s already looking out the window to see ‘are they coming to see me or not.’”

When someone comes in, Rex greets them happily, grabbing a toy to play with them, Riffey said.

Graduate assistant for Student Health Services Kennedy Rawlings works in the Dawg Lounge in the afternoon, looking over the dog that is in for the day.

“Since I’ve been here we’ve had quite a few different dogs, like, the dogs we have this year are new compared to last year,” Rawlings said. “Last year, we had a dog named Kevin and Lola and they were really popular with a lot of the students, but a lot of their families had transitioned out of student health services.”

Rawling said Jethro is calm, gentle and supportive; Rex is more outgoing and the dog to play with. She loves seeing students come in and interact with the dogs.

“That’s probably my favorite part of the job is just seeing students kind of creating space for themselves to destress and to find, like, therapeutic interventions that work for them. A big part of that being dog therapy,” Rawlings said. “That’s probably the most popular thing people come in here for.” 

Rawlings said the dogs usually attract more dog lovers or people who miss their dogs at home. 

“Maybe they can’t have a dog because of housing restrictions, or they just are interested in getting to know the dog,” Rawlings said. “I definitely think it adds a more relaxing environment because it kind of takes away any awkwardness of coming in, you know, you come in and you directly have something to focus on.”

Staff reporter Jamilah Lewis can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jamilahlewis. To stay up to date with all your southern Illinois news, follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter.

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