In 2001, Jill Robinson, of Animals Asia Foundation in Chengdu, China, arrived for a visit in Chennai. Soon she had passed on to Dr. Nanditha Krishna, Honorary Director of the C P Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation, the concept and the knowledge needed to start a Dr. Dog program for the children at the school—especially how to assess the dogs and then train them.

Vishal, a nine year old boy who had never spoken said the first words he’d ever said in his life to Sachin (named by the children after an Indian cricket player)—one of the Dr. Dogs at the school.

Uppuma is a south Indian dish made of vegetables. One day during a therapy session, Vishal turned to the dog and said, "Sachin, I ate uppuma for breakfast today, what did you eat?"

legs and a thin little tail. He has beautiful long floppy ears. …We love Sachin very much. He plays with the ball sometimes. He is very lively and he runs very fast. He is a very special dog because he helps children who are shy and backward to behave with confidence. We play with him for one hour every day during Pet Therapy class."

Vishal is not the only child at the Saraswathi Kendra School who has spoken his or her first words to a dog. There are several others. As we all know, dogs are non-judgmental and easy to relate to. As our best friends, they make it easy to communicate. "A dog is non-threatening," Dr. Nanditha Krishna says.

A few of the children have come from abusive situations, where trauma may have led to their inability to speak, so Dr. Dog is a friend that they can trust.

The children are introduced to Moosa and are told that he knows English and that they will need to speak with him in English. Speaking English is encouraged since it will help them to find a good job after they finish school.

also runs the Grove School in the building next door. An upscale school for children from well-to-do families, the Grove School generates income to pay the scholarships for the children of the Saraswthi Kendra School whose families do not have the resources to pay. So a great many children are given an excellent education, and the schools are self-sufficient and pay for themselves. There is a plan to merge the two schools in the future.

This year the Grove School has done a project on the rivers of India, which the Saraswathi Kendra School also participated in. In a class called Indian Culture, they have kept scrapbooks. They talk about Indian traditions. For example, they examine the cultural reasons for vegetarianism. They look at why Ahimsa (the Indian tradition of doing no harm) is practiced.

Dr. Moosa is a regular at Saraswathi Kendra Learning Centre for Children. As he enters the class, the children crowd around him, excited and a little scared. He sits down and waits patiently as they approach him. "Hi! My name is Ashok," one of the boys says shyly, adding "I like dosa. Do you like dosa?" Moosa holds out a paw and someone at the back says, "He likes Dosa too."

Dr. Moosa is a black Labrador. Saraswathi Kendra Learning Centre for Children, a part of the C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation, is India’s first full-time school for children with autism, learning disabilities, dyslexia and behaviour and habit disorders. It provides a range of innovative therapies for its 175-odd students and one of it is animal-assisted therapy for autistic children. And what better animal to work with than man’s best friend?

"Autistic children have an inability to communicate verbally and concentrate on one particular thing. Some of them never talk. But when there is a dog, they feel a lot more at ease. We talk through the dog and encourage the children to reply. This not only improves their verbal communication but they also learn to concentrate. We have found it to be more effective than traditional therapy," says Marlene J. Kamdar, the principal. Dr. Dog has been around for 13-odd years and remains a highly successful method even today.

Dr. Moosa is the seventh on call. One among the therapy’s best success stories hangs in the front office of the school in the form of a framed chart with the childish drawing of a Dachshund, 10 scrawling lines written in sketch pen describing it and ‘Pet Therapy with Sachin" written in big bold letters at the top. "Sachin is a little Dachshund puppy" He has a body like a sausage…" it goes. It was written by an autistic boy who, after nine years of silence, spoke about Sachin the first ever time he spoke.

"You can’t have this kind of success with other animals. But even with dogs, the best breeds to work with are Labradors and retrievers. They’re naturally friendly dogs. The smaller breeds are unpredictable and though we did work with two Dachshunds, labs are the best," Dr. Nanditha Krishnan, Hon. Director, CPR Foundation, says.

Dr. Dog sessions are two times a week for about 45 minutes. It is on a one-on-one basis and the dog works with three or four kids every class. During the course the student works with dogs in a planned way to increase desirable abilities.

Saraswathi Kendra, in association with Blue Cross, certifies these dogs and trains them for use in other special schools across the city.

"We encourage volunteers too. People can bring in their dog to work with us for the Dr. Dog programme. The dog has to be minimum two years old, healthy, vaccinated and must have basic obedience skills. A lot of people have volunteered in the past but they drop out soon because we insist that the dogs have to be sterilised to prevent aggression. But it’s imperative because one mistake could cost the dog and the child their life," Nanditha explains.

As Dr. Moosa leaves the class, the kids protest for a few minutes and then watch as their doctor is led away by his handler. "This helps them learn to let go," Nanditha concludes, adding, "But I must tell you that there is something about a dog that makes the child talk. No one knows how or why. But it just happens."