United eases holiday travel stress with comfort dogs at hub airports

United Airlines has dispatched a team of loving canines to its airport hub terminals across the country to provide a bit of cheer this holiday season as part of its United Paws program.

Man's four-legged buddies will be in force at United's hub airports Dec. 21-23 to ease the travel experience for stressed travelers, according to a United news release. These pups are there for you to pet, rub, snuggle, and snap selfies with until your flight calls for boarding. They are greeting travelers in the gate areas of seven United hub airports: Chicago O'Hare, Cleveland, Denver, Houston Bush Intercontinental, Los Angeles, Newark, and Washington Dulles. Last year, they were only in Chicago and Houston, but this year, the program has expanded.

Special handlers will accompany the dogs, which are brought in from nonprofit organizations. 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). Maybe if dogs were in airports throughout the year, we might see less air rage from frustrated travelers. Luckily, LAX has such a program, known as Pets Unstressing Passengers (PUP), which is available to all airline passengers year-round. LAX will have 13 dogs this week, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Give Fido a hug if you see him, it might just make you feel a bit more relaxed.