Limitations of the study Like all studies, this one is not without its own limitations.

In retrospect, there are a few limitations that need to be addressed for improvement in future studies. First, is with regards to the sample size. The goal of the researchers was to have a total of 60 participants for the study, however, only 48 were obtained. Having obtained 60 participants would have helped find a significant relationship from the data. The researchers had a difficult time finding subjects who were willing to participate mainly because of the sample population and the venue of the study. Since participating in the study meant that they would have to bring their pets to school, many of those who were interested to participate couldn't. So, for this reason, the researchers opted to conduct the study on saturdays. In addition, this study was conducted on a student population whose main mode of transportation was commuting. This meant that participants would have to ride the jeep with their pet which can be too burdensomeespecially to those who owned a large pet. Attempts to overcome this issue included offering to pick-up the participants with their dog from their homes or paying for their fares to ride a taxi but this, however, later proved too costly for the researchers. Another limitation is the method of the study. As mentioned in the preceding chapter, this study made se of the experimental design for gathering data which is useful for finding a cause and effect relationship. The area for concern, is not so much on the internal validity of the study, rather, it is more on the external validity. The study is on college students and therefore, it is assumed, that mostbut not allof the stress they feel are in the school setting. In the experiment, the pet came immediately after the stress. In the real world, however, this is usually not the case. Rarely, can one find students bringing their pet to school mainly because most colleges and universities do not allow pets inside. The last limitation, and perhaps the most important, is with regards to the generalizability of the results. This research is intended to study how a dog can serve to reduce the stress of their owners who are college students, so the sample population consists purely of college students. Thus, it is hard to generalize the results to include populations other than college students. For future studies on the topic it is recommended that the sample population be expanded to include sample populations from other age groups.