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Journalism of Courage
(Written by Riya Thakral)
A nine-year-old boy’s mother says he can express himself best after a session. A professional who suffered from anxiety says he’s learnt to cope. These are just two of the many cases where people say they’ve benefited from dog therapy. But as this form of therapy gains in popularity, therapists caution that expectations need to be tempered.
The mother of the nine-year-old boy from Mumbai, who is on the autism spectrum, said he has improved in terms of expressing his emotions clearly after dog therapy. “Being a non-verbal child it becomes easy for my son to connect with the dogs, who are very playful and don’t need speech to make friends, he plays with the dogs and is in a happy space with them,” she said, on condition of anonymity.
She said her son takes four sessions a month, and mostly is in a playful and happy mood at the end of a session. The woman said her daughter also takes sessions to de-stress from academics and often sits in with her brother.
“Pet therapy is a good experience for a child as he learns to bond, take care and love others which he finds difficult in a regular social setup,” she said.
Dog therapy is part of what is scientifically known as ” Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT)”, which incorporates animals like dogs, cats and birds into a treatment plan.
Daksh Jaiswal, a 26-year-old professional from Delhi, said he was dealing with too much stress due to hectic work life. Introduced to dog therapy by his friend, Jaiswal said it helped him cope.
“Mental health is positioning and a perspective problem and people feel they will be looked down upon. But when you package it has AAT(Animal Assisted Therapy), you can essentially pass it off as the animal is here to play with you,” he said.
Jaiswal now has a dog which he said is undergoing training to be a therapy dog.
Minal Kavishwar, who has run Mumbai-based dog therapy centre Animal Angels since 2003, said they have held sessions in special schools, hospitals, schools, centres for senior citizens, centres for adults, and children with developmental disabilities. “When we consider any therapy, intervention or treatment process it is essential that the person conducting it has to be a qualified professional in that field, practising within his scope of work,” Kavishwar said.
There’s still a debate on how many registered dog therapy centres there are in India presently. Kavishwar claims to be the only one, with others in India providing human-animal interaction programmes, that are limited in scope. The therapy dogs are said to be trained for a year-and-half.
One such human-animal interaction programme is run by Animesh Katiyar, who owns Gurgaon-based pet-friendly cafe Fur Ball Story, and says they merely choose dogs with the right temperament. The cafe allows people to play with the dogs, go for a walk, and cuddling with them, relieving their stress from the hectic life.
Subhadra Cherukuri, a Bengaluru-based professional dog trainer and animal-assisted therapy practitioner, who co-founded Wag-Ville said that the breed of the dog isn’t relevant even for dog therapy. “The dog can be of any size or breed, but needs to meet temperament criteria, and also requires a high level of training,” she said. The Bengaluru-based organisation also houses the Paws and Hooves Project, offering Canine Assisted Therapy and Equine Assisted Therapy (Hippotherapy) for individuals with special needs.
Cherukuri cautioned that this form of therapy alone isn’t enough. “Dog therapy is not a substitute for therapy, but needs to be done in conjunction with other therapies,” she said.
Dr Ekta Soni, a Clinical Psychologist at Apollo Hospital in Delhi, said the biggest successes of dog therapy have been with a section of children, mainly those with developmental disorders.
She also pointed out that the benefits of dog therapy may be limited to certain conditions. “It might replace or reduce the use of drug treatment for certain health conditions. But for some of them, like Alzheimer’s patients, it is unlikely that an animal will replace the use of medication. It can assist in the treatment but not completely rule out the use of therapy and medication,” she said.
Chetna Malik, a senior canine trainer and behaviourist who works with the Delhi based K9 school, offers some tips on how to know which dog therapy centres are authentic.
“They should not use puppies for therapy…If they have certified lots of dogs for therapy in a brief time. It takes a lot of training and testing before a dog can be relied upon to be on their best behaviour during sessions,”Malik said.
“If their therapy dogs are snappy or show signs of discomfort. If they resist human contact, that’s a major red flag,” she said.
The writer is an intern at indianexpress.com
