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.

“What made this study unique was that it was multisite—it took place in five different hospitals across the country—and the fact that we visited over a hundred patients and 26 dogs participated, making it the largest of its kind in this field,” says study leader Amy McCullough, national director of research and therapy at American Humane, a Washington, D.C.-based animal welfare organization.