At the K9 School in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, Adnaan Khan calls out to three-year-old Somerset. This rescued indie dog is a permanent resident of the centre, which together with the not-for-profit K9 Healers is part of the dog training initiative started by Khan and his wife, Teesta, nearly a decade back. As a pup, Somerset was mistreated by passersby and lost his vision. After years of therapy, the indie has regained trust in humans and is now all set to help in animal-assisted therapy at various educational institutes and hospitals in the National Capital Region (NCR).
In August last year, K9 School began a similar project at an observation home affiliated to the Central Jail in Delhi’s Tihar. This unique pilot project ran at the Adharshila Observation Home for boys, which is affiliated to the department of women and child development (WCD) of the Delhi government. The participants were young people between the ages of 11 and 17 years who had been in conflict with the law and were placed in the home. As part of the three-month programme—four hours every day—a trained therapy dog acted as a companion to a resident under supervision of the authorities. The individual was tasked with the full responsibility for the dog—feeding, hygiene and regular exercise. The goal of the project was to foster a sense of responsibility among the adolescents, an aim shared by similar projects initiated worldwide. Khan says animal-assisted therapy can help individuals recover from trauma by taking responsibility for another creature. Even after leaving the centre, the young adults are encouraged to get in touch with K9 Healers, which offers them employment as dog walkers, security dog handlers or trainers. The final run of this project is expected to begin shortly, subject to government authorisation and available funds. K9 runs the programme as part of its corporate social responsibility efforts, and trains the dogs at its facility in Gurugram.
Deeksha Kalra, consultant for psychiatry at Gurugram’s Artemis Hospital, says there is a clear value attached to therapy dogs. “The residents often experience a high rate of mental health concerns. Dogs can evoke positive social responses, foster engagement, bring joy, provide comfort and reduce anxiety,” she says.
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Today, K9 Healers is home to 25 dogs, with Teesta overseeing the training of 11 therapy dogs and six search-and-rescue dogs. The organisation has four senior and six junior trainers across NCR, and a network of 20 trainers in other cities, including Bengaluru and Mumbai. They work with the dogs to help them react patiently, control signs of aggression, and more. During one of the therapy-assisted projects, a K9 representative takes the participants through proper handling of a therapy dog. The children are encouraged to take the dogs for a stroll, feed them or engage in play. This helps both canine and child to get familiar with one another.
While K9’s project with Adharshila might be a one-of-a-kind government programme, other animal-assisted therapy projects been run in the past in the public-private partnership format (an emailed query to Adharshila did not receive a response). Between 2014-17, the not-for-profit Animal Angels Foundation partnered with the Airports Authority of India to place three therapy dogs at Terminal 2 of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai to comfort stressed-out travellers inside the departure terminal.
Minal Kavishwar, founder, Animal Angels, still has therapy dog sessions for companies such as HSBC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, DHL and Bajaj Allianz. During break-from-work sessions, executives can spend time with these dogs to unwind.
Delhi-based Deepanwita Maitra, a rehabilitation psychologist and special educator, who works at a special education school in Gurugram, has seen the magic that therapy dogs work on students. Her school recently hosted rehabilitated indie dogs Marsh and Mellow to offer animal-assisted therapy to children on the autism spectrum. “Both children and adults on the autism spectrum face a lot of problems communicating in social settings. This is one of the reasons why they play alone. When around dogs, though, they do not have any such hesitation, which is one of the ways in which dogs help in therapeutic play,” says Maitra.
Vernika Awal is a Delhi-based writer.
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