At this special school in Chennai, dogs help students build social skills Premium

Meet Dr. Dog, Rinku, who aids children with special needs through animal-assisted therapy at Saraswati Kendra in Chennai.

Meet Rinku, also known as Dr. Dog, who works with children at Saraswati Kendra, a school for children with special needs, in Chennai. 

These children face challenges such as learning disabilities, autism, and dyslexia, and the school uses animal-assisted therapy to help them develop social and behavioral skills.

When Rinku, who has been the Dr. Dog for two years now, walks into the room, the kids light up with excitement. The ‘doctor’ comes in, looks at everyone, goes around sniffing and wagging her tail. “What does Rinku like?” a psychologist asks. “Biscuit,” one student replies. Then comes the follow-up: “But are biscuits healthy?” “No,” the children answer. 

Through moments like this, the children are gently encouraged to speak, learn lessons, communicate, and build social skills — all with Rinku as the medium.

“I first read about pet therapy being done in the United States. But that involved using horses. Where could we get horses in Chennai? So I tried it with my own dog, Cleo. And then Sachin, my dachshund,” says Nanditha Krishna, president, C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation, and founder of Saraswati Kendra.

One of the first children to try this therapy was a nine-year-old with autism who hardly spoke. One day, he surprised everyone by saying, “Sachin, I had upma for breakfast. What did you have?” For the educators, this was a huge breakthrough, says Ms. Krishna.

According to Ms. Krishna, Saraswati Kendra was the first place in India to introduce pet therapy, back in 1996. A major turning point came in 2001, when Jill Robinson, an animal welfare activist and founder of Animals Asia Foundation, a non-profit working in animal welfare, visited. She taught them how to assess dogs for therapy and how to interact with them. Ms. Krishna learned these techniques and has been using animal-assisted therapy at the school ever since.