Airport comfort dogs to help ease holiday travel stress

The United Paws program runs December 21 through December 23 at Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark and Washington/Dulles airports.

On Monday, the airline kicked off three days of dog-hugging festivities.

The ride-hailing company Lyft will begin pick-up service at Los Angeles International Airport tomorrow, just in time for the holiday travel season, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced today.

The benefits of this aren’t just common sense; they’re also backed up by science.

United Paws says that five minutes spent with a dog can help to lower blood pressure and stress hormones (as though any of us needed another excuse to cuddle with an adorable puppy).

“I’ve experienced this recently and think this is a wonderful idea for holiday travelers”.

“We’ve been doing this for about four hours now and we have nine dogs that are here at LAX”, United Airlines Customer Service Representative, Susy Navasanchez, said. “We introduced comfort dogs during the holiday season last year, and they were very popular with our customers, so we’re bringing them back at more airports this year”. United Airlines believes the dogs could help relax those who suffer from flight anxiety.

For every picture shared, United Airlines will donate $1 to support therapy dogs.