Young dogs and new tricks

Giggles and claps filled the library as the little ones were busy reading Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and The Beauty and the Beast. All the while, Yoda lay down listening attentively to their narration. But if you thought Yoda was another child, or a teacher, you’d be mistaken. Yoda is a two-year-old Pug who was the centre of attention at the Hippocampus library, in Koramangala, as kids jostled to be the one to read Yoda a story.

And then there was Scruffy, a five-year-old German Shepherd who mingled with the children once the reading session was over. “Animal therapy can do wonders for children, especially slow learners, children with reading and learning disorders and dyslexic kids,” said Minal

Kavishwar, clinical psychologist, animal therapist, and founder president of the Animal Angels Foundation.

The organisation, a Pune-based NGO is the only organisation in India working in the field of Animal Assisted Therapy. Minal is in Bangalore to introduce a number of therapy programmes with dogs.

There are at least 10 families in Bangalore that have shown interest in training their dogs for community service. Dolups, a Golden Retriever; Kiss, a mixed breed; Noni, a German Shepherd; and Moghli, a Labrador are soon going to be new friends of Yoda and Scruffy.

Dogs are good listeners. And while most children love to be around pets, slow learners benefit the most. If they are introduced to the pets at the right age, and asked to read out their study material to the pet, or teach the pet the subjects they are learning, the rise in enthusiasm is palpable.

“However, every dog cannot be introduced into such community service. The job of a therapy dog is emotionally demanding. Thus, they need to be patient, calm, friendly and have high energy levels,” says Kavishwar.

Therapy dogs differ from guide dogs, says Minal. “Here we are using animals as a medium for goal-oriented therapy. All dogs can sense human emotion, but therapy dogs are trained to respond to these emotions. Dogs can be used in a bigger way to motivate human beings,” she adds.

It is unimportant whether the dogs are mongrels or pedigreed. What matters is their attitude and personality. Thus, each dog undergoes a screening test for their temperament. This is followed by an in-house training session and an on-field training session. Kavishwar is currently in the city to select the right dogs, train them and their owners, and then put them to work. “Tuesday will be the session for training and recruiting dogs. The owners play a key role here. They, in the long term, need to train their dogs to be calm and increase their pet’s tolerance levels to different types of touches and sounds. Also, we teach owners how to position the dog and how to hold it at a therapy session so that the other person doesn’t feel uncomfortable,” said Kavishwar.

“We, at Hippocampus, work with 75 government schools. We want to introduce dog therapy in at least a couple of these schools to start with. Going by the response, we can extend our plans,” said Umesh Malhotra, founder of Hippocampus and the owner of Scruffy and Noni. Umesh is planning to introduce Noni to a school near his home that deals with children with Down’s Syndrome. “Provided the school gives us permission, once the training programme is over, Noni can walk to work every day,” says Umesh.
Yoda is open to any therapy programme so long as it is of use to people. “Generally kids find Yoda very cute. When Yoda was introduced to the reading session on Sunday, the mood of the kids changed within seconds. They were all so excited. I think Yoda can be productively used for any therapy, related to children,” says Sangita Kamat, an entrepreneur and the owner of Yoda. Eight-year-old Om, Sangita’s son, is all set to walk Yoda to the therapy centres, once Yoda gets his job.

Namita, the proud owner of Kiss is motivated by the concept of animal assisted therapy and is waiting eagerly for little Kiss to be a part of it. Talks are also on with the Spastic Society of Karnataka to introduce dog therapy there.