Pets as stress relievers

I was diagnosed with anxiety as a preteen, and I have found that my dogs greatly reduce my stress. They are really good at knowing when I'm nervous or stressed out about a situation, and comfort me a lot. I would love to be able to have a registered therapy dog for my anxiety, so that I can bring my dog with me- a lot of my anxiety manifests in social situations where it's not really appropriate to bring a dog along- but they are so expensive! Just being able to cuddle up to my dogs and feel their fur really helps though, I don't really remember what I did when I was sad or upset before I had my doggies!