It all started three years ago when Pedro went to the Archidona Dog Fair for the first time and watched a training demonstration by the Quercus Dog School. He was only six years old but he went to talk to the school’s director, David García, himself to see if he could do the same with his dog Rufo. The answer was, without a doubt, affirmative.

His mother, Lola Álvarez, wasn’t sure at first whether he would be capable because Pedro suffers from Prader-Willi syndrome which causes hypotonia, slower movement and compulsive eating. In fact it was the feeding the dog part that worried Lola most: “I was afraid that every time he gave the dog a sausage he would eat two”. But nothing like that happened. Pedro started to train Rufo and when he was run over by a car he did the same with Fénix, his new Labrador.

“I took him to the dog school in Malaga twice a week and I saw how he worked hard and, with his limitations, he did things that everyone else can do. The dog took notice of him and he rewarded him with food”, recalls Lola. The experience was so positive that Pedro’s mother proposed a project that David García could not refuse: canine therapy for the disabled; after all in Malaga Pedro was no different to the rest of the class.

The Mollina Association for the Integration of the Disabled (Amidis) of which Lola is vice-president, applied for a grant from the provincial government to be able to give the therapy to a group of seven or eight disabled youngsters in the Gerardo Fernández school in Mollina.

The initiative was a great success. Not only did they obtain funding from the provincial authority in Malaga but since September they have been giving canine therapy to children and young adults with physical and mental disabilities. Their ages range between two and a half and 20 and they come from different parts of the Antequera district, points out David García.

Ainoa is the youngest of the group. She is only two and a half although the Sotos syndrome makes her look older. Her father, Antonio José Aguilera, is surprised at how she is benefitting from the canine therapy sessions, even after only three sessions. “She used to be quite scared of dogs but the first day she was feeding it out of the palm of her hand, stroking it, walking it... it helped boost her self-esteem”, says Antonio José, also a member of Amidis, who like the majority of parents of children with disabilities, takes his daughter to a number of therapy sessions to help her development, such as hydrotherapy, equine therapy, early childhood intervention or speech therapy, almost all funded by their household economy. What’s more he doesn’t hesitate to take part if necessary and has often been at his daughter’s side for the canine therapy.