Waiting at the paediatric OPD of Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) in Mumbai’s Parel, the two-and-a-half-year-old’s eyes light up. “Maa, look! There’s a dog!” he squeals in delight. The room, filled with paediatric cancer patients and their anxious parents, focuses its attention on the furry, four-legged therapist who has just walked in year-old golden retriever Myra.
A gentle lick and a warm snuggle from Myra puts the children, many of whom were crying in anticipation of their meeting with doctors, at ease. A dancing session follows, with the children grooving to Bollywood music.
In an attempt to curb depression and other mental health issues that children suffering from cancer are likely to face, dog therapy sessions were launched in January at TMH, one of India’s top cancer hospitals. The sessions take place twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Medical oncologist Dr Shripad Banavali, who is also the director of academics at TMH, said dog therapy is a proven method as it helps to release hormones that make people happy and relaxes patients, improving their recovery rate. “When a patient is happy, the body releases dopamine, which makes us feel good, and serotonin, which reduces depression. This improves the clinical output, and the dropout rate declines. In these four months of starting the programme, so many children have benefited from it,” he said.
Dr Banavali was first introduced to the concept of pet therapy more than two decades ago when he was studying in the United States. “Pet therapy may be a new and emerging concept in India, but in developed countries like the US, it is quite a common mode of patient care,” he said.
At the OPD, along with Myra, her owner Behroze Mistry — a certified pet therapist — also works with the cancer patients. The paediatric OPD gets around 300 patients every day.
Myra herself has travelled a long road to recovery. At around 10 years of age, she was rescued by Mistry from the side of a road in Pune. Mistry says Myra was abandoned by breeders amid the pandemic in 2020.
“For breeders, dogs are just puppy-making factories. The dogs are not cared for or loved. Later, when the dogs age and are unable to bear puppies anymore, they just throw them on the road to die,” said Mistry. When Myra was rescued, she was scared and didn’t know how to survive in the outside world. She was also suffering anxiety and depression.
Having put Myra on the road to recovery, Mistry said she realised Myra needed more than just love — she needed a purpose. It took more than seven months to train her to become a therapist. When Covid-19 restrictions were relaxed, Mistry started taking her to schools for disabled children to interact with them. “From being a scared, abandoned dog who was scared of the human touch, to now helping children to cope with their pain, she has come a long way,” said Mistry.
The two sessions every week at the OPD lasts for more than one-and-a-half hours. During these sessions, Mistry conducts a number of activities, including dancing with the children, as well as teaching them about manners, hygiene, yoga, the English language and so on. All these activities are centred around Myra. For instance, to teach the children about basic hygiene, Mistry would show how she would brush Myra’s teeth, clean her ears, and so on.
“The children, who are already dealing with a lot of pain, need creative activities. If I just sit here and explain why and how to brush daily, they won’t listen. But when I showed them how Myra’s teeth are brushed, they also enact it and the activity gets imbibed in their minds,” said Mistry.
The initiative is part of the programme by the TMH’s Paediatric Foundation, known as ImPaCCT Foundation, for the holistic development of children.
“Our aim is not only to provide treatment care, but to help in their overall healing. Through crafts, dance, and dog therapy, we try to provide a playful environment,” said Shalini Jatia, secretary of the foundation. Outlining some of the practical benefits of dog therapy, she said that to help children who are scared of injections, the hospital gives replica syringes to them to pretend to inject the dog. “Myra would roll up on her back while the children use the replica to inject her on her tummy. This enactment has helped many children get over their fear of injection,” said Jatia.
Now, the hospital plans to start dog therapy in the paediatric ward, too.
Dr Banavali says dog therapy can be used for adult patients as well. However, he pointed out that there was a scarcity of pet therapists.
“In hospice, where the patients can’t go out and are mostly bed-ridden, the centres can welcome pets like dogs and cats. For this, we need more qualified pet therapists,” he said.
Mistry said that courses on pet therapy are available online and offline. “People can take up pet therapy as a full-time profession or part-time on weekends,” she said.
At the end of the session, as Myra leaves the OPD, children rush towards her to say goodbye.
The two-year-old’s mother says she is happy to see her son — who was diagnosed with leukaemia in February — smile.
“As a mother, I am overwhelmed to see my son so happy and joyful after days. Normally, he would remain unenergetic, but today, he kept playing with the dog and even danced. For parents like us, this is priceless,” Das said.
Myra, who was rescued from a roadside in Pune, with cancer patients. (Express Photo by Rupsa Chakraborty) 
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