Pets as Therapy arrives in Nepal - Part 1

Following on from our recent visit to KAT we are excited to announce that the first Pets as Therapy project has commenced in Nepal!

Bec had spent the last few months working through a course that helped to set up such a program including how to choose appropriate dogs, how to train them, and how to teach the children the best way to treat the dogs ie. don't pull their tails!

We had chosen the orphanage at Bal Mandir as the first location to take the dogs as we have done a lot of projects there, we know the children well and were confident the staff would enjoy the idea and get involved. There are also a number of disabled children living there who we hoped would particularly benefit from the visit.

For the first stage of the project we took a group of 6 girls aged between 11 and 15 to visit the KAT centre. As we approached a big gate providing the only barrier between the girls and the sounds of many dogs barking excitedly the look of terror on their faces said it all – children in Nepal generally do not have good experiences with animals. But once the gate was opened and the girls were greeted by smiling faces and wagging tails the fear slowly began to dissipate. In fact the girls soon realised that the only danger here was having your hands slobbered all over!


Once the excitement settled down the girls were shown a small presentation on the importance of treating animals well which included some information on street dogs in Kathmandu and why this could be a problem. They were then taken on a tour of the facility which showed them the full range of problems street dogs could face but also the ways they can be treated and rehabilitated.

As the afternoon came to an end we were confident that these girls would be a great help to us as we introduced a couple of dogs to the other children at Bal Mandir. It was dinner time by the time we were driving back towards the orphanage so we decided to treat the girls to some momos at a local restaurant. As they were eating they suddenly erupted with squeals of excitement. Once they calmed down one of them was able to explain that a ‘hero’ (Nepali TV/film star) was sitting at the table opposite us! This really made their day and I couldn’t help but smile at the fact that girls in many ways were the same everywhere!!!

Stay tuned for part 2 – the day we took the dogs to Bal Mandir…