Yoga last year, dogs this year — if nothing else, YVR has a lock on how its West Coast clientele like to relax when travelling.
In partnership with St. John Ambulance, the airport rolled out its Ambassador Dog program Aug. 22 in an effort to take stress out of the travel experience.
Eight dogs spanning multiple breeds and sizes are now combing the terminals alongside handlers and the airport’s Green Coat volunteers. The service is offered between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. from Monday to Friday in both the international and domestic wings of YVR.
The offering is part of a larger initiative called LASI (Less Airport Stress Initiative) that went through a pilot phase beginning in December 2016. This week represents the official launch and preliminary feedback suggests travellers are lapping it up.
“It’s been fantastic. It already was rolling along quite well, but now that we’ve done this inaugural launch, the response has been overwhelming,” said Reg Krake, YVR’s director of customer care. “We’ve had really fantastic reviews coming in.”
There isn’t much in the way of set parameters around the doggie dos and don’ts. Travellers can pet the dogs, take selfies, or just hang out alongside the pooch. The handlers and dogs go through months of training through St. John Ambulance to ensure they don’t jump, bite or become easily agitated. They’re also specifically trained to work well with kids. YVR staff ask travellers to always check with the dog’s handlers to see if it’s OK to interact with the dog before doing so.
The ambulance service has about 25 years’ worth of experience in the field of training therapeutic dogs that go on to work at seniors’ homes, community centres and in kid-specific environments.
“The amazing thing about dogs is they don’t care what background you come from, they don’t care what you look like — they just want love and they want attention,” said Drew Binette, strategic initiatives lead, community services with St. John Ambulance BC/Yukon.
The zen-through-dog initiative follows in the footsteps of a similar pilot program launched last summer called YYoga@YVR. A 10-foot by 10-foot wellness space accommodating about a dozen people was set up, complete with free yoga mats and an instructor.
Edmonton International Airport was the first in Canada to link up dogs with air travellers in 2014 and it was an instant hit. The day of the program’s launch saw a massive snow storm hit central Alberta, causing massive delays and missed flights. Man’s best friend was just that on a day where headaches turned to head scratches and belly rubs.
That level of popularity seems to have carried over in the YVR context. In the 10 minutes the Courier was at the airport, dozens of travellers and staff flocked to the canines for some TLC.
“We’ve had passengers with really high anxiety and fear of travel altogether, fear of air travel, breaking down in tears and just releasing all that anxiety and saying ‘I’m ready to travel now’ after interacting with the dogs,” Krake said. “It’s really powerful.”
