Therapy Dog Visibly Exhausted After Absorbing Entire Waiting Room's Anxiety

Biscuit, a five-year-old golden retriever employed as a therapy dog at Meridian Psychiatric Associates, has been placed on administrative leave after developing symptoms that the practice's veterinary consultant describes as 'secondary traumatic stress, which I did not think was possible in a dog until I met this dog.' Biscuit has been working the clinic's waiting room since 2023, providing comfort to patients awaiting therapy sessions. His duties include sitting on laps, accepting ear scratches, and absorbing ambient anxiety through what staff describe as 'an apparently infinite capacity for emotional sponge work.' 'He was fine for the first two years,' said clinic director Dr. Patricia Baseline. 'Then we noticed he started sighing. Not normal dog sighing. Therapeutic sighing. The kind therapists do when they're processing something heavy. Then he started avoiding eye contact with the more anxious patients. Then he began hiding under the reception desk during peak hours.' The veterinary evaluation found no physical ailments but noted behavioral changes consistent with burnout: decreased enthusiasm for belly rubs, a preference for solitude over social contact, and what the vet described as 'a thousand-yard stare typically associated with combat veterans, not golden retrievers.' 'He's absorbed too much,' said veterinary behaviorist Dr. Sandra Pavlov. 'A therapy dog's emotional bandwidth is finite. Biscuit has been processing the unregulated affect of approximately forty anxious humans per day for three years. That's roughly 30,000 anxiety encounters. Even the most resilient retriever has limits.' Biscuit's leave package includes daily walks in non-clinical settings, unrestricted access to tennis balls, and what Dr. Pavlov prescribed as 'at least three weeks of interactions exclusively with emotionally stable people, if any can be found.' The clinic has hired a replacement therapy dog, a Labrador named Prozac, who was selected for what staff describe as 'an almost aggressive cheerfulness that shows no sign of being affected by human misery.' Biscuit is expected to return in April, pending a follow-up assessment of his 'therapeutic resilience.'