Pawsgiving: Comfort dogs greet travelers at Tweed-New Haven Airport

Service dogs and their handlers greeted customers and provided comfort at the airport.

Mark Sudol

Nov 27, 2024, 12:26 PM

Updated 12 days ago

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A local airport has brought in man's best friend to alleviate the stress of Thanksgiving travel.
Tweed-New Haven Airport has some popular pooches: three comfort dogs named Heidi, John and Jules. It's called Pawsgiving.
"It brings a calming effect and provides comfort, support and wellness for what everyone's going through on their busiest travel day of the year," said Heidi's handler, Rich Simons from the Yale Police Department.
Even kids who might be afraid of dogs were warming up to the cute critters.
"It calms everybody down in a pretty hectic environment no matter what. Trying to travel on Thanksgiving is never easy, but the dogs make it a lot easier," said traveler Susan Shankman, from Fairfield.
People at the busy airport even had time to snap some pictures.
These dogs are trained starting at six weeks all the way to 15 months. There are 14 comfort dogs in the state, and they are all on social media.