In association with autistic people dolphin therapies seemed to be THE hit in the last years! But as a German institute affirms, it’s not the dolphin as a species promising so much progress in therapies. Many researches proclaim therapies with domestic animals -like dog and horse- of equal value to those with captured tamed/wild dolphins. The increased demand for dolphin assisted therapies causes prices rising far beyond measure (for a 2weeks dolphin therapy you have to invest ca 12.000 €); besides the rising demand (in such a profitable business) leads to an increasing number of wildlife capture – problematic from the viewpoint of species conservation and animal protection!
Much more it’s the individual animal being adopted by the autistic person, no matter if it’s a horse, dog or just that legendary dolphin therapy. The “animal assisted therapy” is based on body contact, sight, communication and interaction with the animal that acts as a kind of catalyser for human emotions.
In connection with our waterwork group and our son’s work at a promotion school and the resulting friendship to the autistic child josua (happy 8 years and called “josi”) the question arose in this family to look for a therapy dog. First contacts between Josie, his brother and parents and the “Waterworking Group NRW” had already been arranged during the winter season. That weekend in January “pulling carts” around the lake was a funny challenge!
No problem, this action could give the contact to that group even in winter! Bryana being part of the event made friends with Josie easily. Some days later we visited the family in Josi’s daily environment. It was great to watch how the dog renewed their friendship and according to Josi’s interest in dogs we decided to relocate our next session into the water –inspired by reports about dolphin therapies- in a small set of persons and dogs.
Apart from a basic obedience training a dog can’t be just turned into a therapy dog: it takes the right genes and “blood”; essential conditions such a dog has to show are social intelligence and some more qualifications!
Certain requirements as therapy dog which Bryana certainly shows, the boy’s obvious affection to the dog and the resulting joy were reason enough for this action and the following sessions.
A bouvier doesn’t have to be fit either for IPO only or “leisure” sports or as a companion dog, but may demonstrate with such actions that man/woman/dog may play their role in everyday life and even perform in joyful work – in this case causing joy in a handicapped human being!
What nobody dared to believe: while getting into closer contact to Bryana Josi showed a completely new behaviour: all by himself he let his body drift... lying on the water on his back feeling safe! Another surprise  were several sound combinations and not the usual isolated uttered vocals when he left the pool, we’ll have to see about that!
What impressed us so immensely rather seems to be the rule for those kind of therapies: they often tend to show early results, yet need longer periods to grow and succeed. If you even have the chance to watch it live -as we could- how this work can influence the boy’s development you might share a tear of joy about this useful “work”!
Further meetings were arranged and we won Lena, a prospective therapist, who joined us to work out future therapy plans for Josi and Bryana. During her social pedagogy studies in development promoting (focal point autism) she collected lots of experiences by intensive engagement on this field and even got a 3months practical training place at dolphin therapy on Curacao!

A prosperous collaboration seems to have started, because the following sessions turned out to be satisfactory as well and even will prove more in a continuous dog assisted  water therapy training...and a big fun for Bryana!