Session Service Dogs

The Nina Service Dogs non profit organization was inspired by many advanced international organizations, such as 4 Paws for Ability. These organizations for many decades have been working successfully with phychologists, special therapists, teachers of special education etc using certified session/service dogs, in sessions with children with visible or invisible disabilities as a group team session or individual session.

Nina Service Dogs started the Flagship Programme called the Session-Service Dogs in Greece. Nina, our female Jack Russel is a certified session/service dog and was the first dog in Greece and our pioneer who has worked and participated in sessions with autistic children, with the presence and help of her trainer and the children's specialists.

The Perpato non profit organization which is considered to be one of the oldest and bigest organizations for people with disabilities, has already started cooperating with us. Based on that, Nina has already participated in sessions with Perpato's specialists and children members with disabilities.

Wall-E is the newest member of the Nina Service Dogs family. He came all the way from 4 Paws for Ability Ohio, USA and he is a gift from the founder of 4 Paws; Karen Shirk. Wall-E, is a smart and charismatic male papillon dog and he is our second certified session/service dog.

Our mission is to provide a unique and different session to these children who have weekly sessions through our dogs. The dog can interact with the children, it can help them express themselves, focus more on their lesson and session, advance their learning and socialization skills and share their feelings and thoughts. The specialists will provide the child a happier, more friendly, accelerated and alternative session with the presence of a ''special friend''. 

What is a session/service dog and how can it help?

A session/service dog's training begins at an early age. The session/service dogs are dogs which as all the other service dogs from other categories, are highly trained to participate in educational or therapy sessions and to assist children during the session period, under the supervicion of the dog trainer and the child's specialists.

The session/service dogs are trained to play with the children using different tricks and follow a special set of commands. They are trained to:

• disrupt or interrupt repetitive or unpleasant behaviors
• Help them with their speech barriers
• Improve communication and socialization skills.

After one or two sessions with a specific child, the trainer can take notes with the help of the specialist and by asking the child about his/her favourite hobbies, games and interests. The trainer may then work more with the dog and prepare it for the next sessions by teaching it new tricks that will improve the chemistry between the child and the dog. 

The Nina Service Dogs organization can train and provide session/service dogs to professionals (teachers of special education, psychologists, psychiatrists, speech therapists etc) who are interested to own and add a session/service dog to their sessions.  

If you are interested for a session/service dog please contact us.