HABRI Central

Latest Entries

1. New Directions in Canine Assisted Therapy for Children: Our Entwined Future

   Entry #200

   01 Dec 2014

   5:26 pm

   Patty Dobbs Gross

   0 comments

     This is the last column in a series of ten written for Purdue’s excellent site, and I confess to being a bit emotional to be so close to finally completing this series. It has contained my own life as I’ve lived it through this past turbulent year, woven into the very strands...

2. New Directions in Canine Assisted Therapy: Spreading the Wealth

   Entry #199

   25 Nov 2014

   10:44 am

   Patty Dobbs Gross

   0 comments

     As the field of Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) for children emerges, so does the importance of providing appropriate therapy for all children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. No longer is it ok to simply focus on “curing” autism and ignoring the child as he or she...

3. New Directions in Canine Assisted Therapy: Tales from Four Labradoodles, Part 2

   Entry #179

   16 Aug 2014

   9:03 am

   Patty Dobbs Gross

   0 comments

   North Star Blue The two labradoodle sisters I wrote about in my last column, Luna and Cocoa, have two lively brothers, Harry and Blue, which we are also placing with North Star children. I picked up North Star Blue myself a few months back and flew with him to Nashville to work with Liam, a...

4. New Directions in Canine Assisted Therapy: Tales from Four Labradoodles, Part 1

   Entry #178

   15 Aug 2014

   5:09 pm

   Patty Dobbs Gross

   0 comments

   North Star Luna North Star Foundation is now in her fourteenth year of incorporation as nonprofit; to date we have helped over 200 children all over the world socially, emotionally and educationally by virtue of their assistance or therapy dog placements. We are trying to pioneer animal...

5. New Directions in Canine Assisted Therapy: Developing Canine Bonds with Children with Autism

   Entry #175

   22 Jul 2014

   6:45 pm

   Patty Dobbs Gross

   0 comments

   This column focuses on the still unfolding fate of four golden pups delivered by North Star Molly this time last year. Three of these pups are now working in our program with their carefully chosen children, with their sister, North Star Angel, now working as a therapy dog in New...

6. New Directions in Canine Assisted Therapy: Recycling at its Finest

   Entry #169

   24 Jun 2014

   12:42 pm

   Patty Dobbs Gross

   0 comments

   My last column on failure is deliberately followed by this one, which highlights North Star dogs whose initial failure ended up just a bump on the road toward a better temperamental fit with a different North Star child. It should be noted this new child may not be the next on our waiting list,...

7. New Directions in Canine Assisted Therapy: Correcting Course

   Entry #159

   29 Apr 2014

   11:35 am

   Patty Dobbs Gross

   0 comments

   "''CCI's Madison and Danny''" I have always learned more from my failures than my success, and this column is meant to show a bit of what we have learned from the failures we've endured in the past fifteen years of our incorporation as North Star...

8. New Directions in Canine Assisted Therapy for Children: Rethinking Puppy Raising

   Entry #155

   14 Mar 2014

   10:12 am

   Patty Dobbs Gross

   0 comments

   ''North Star’s Mia and Savannah'' I first met Savannah many years ago, when she came to my home to pick up her first North Star pup for the raising; her grandmother had called me that very morning to inform me that I had kept Savannah on my waiting list to raise a North Star golden for far too...

9. New Directions in Canine Assisted Therapy for Children: Finding our Lost Girls

   Entry #154

   14 Mar 2014

   10:11 am

   Patty Dobbs Gross

   0 comments

   Mary and North Star Esmee There is a child I find myself serving at North Star that I want to profile in this column, someone I never expected to be working with in a primary way; after a decade of finding them among the sisters of the children with autism that I partner with North Star...

10. New Directions in Canine Assisted Therapy for Children who Face Social, Emotional and Educational Challenges

    Entry #132

    20 Dec 2013

    2:16 pm

    Patty Dobbs Gross

    0 comments

    ''North Star Luka and Isabel'' Every assistance or therapy dog placement we create at North Star is a carefully developed relationship between a child and a specifically bred and socialized North Star pup. Knowledge of the temperament of a pup slated to work with a child, as well as an awareness...

11. Raising Our North Stars: Kumari's Puppies at One Year Old

    Entry #124

    14 Oct 2013

    12:01 pm

    Patty Dobbs Gross

    0 comments

    'North Star Kumari's Pups' It has been a difficult time for our nation since North Star Kumari’s puppies were born last October. This past year has been a long one, set against a disquieting backdrop of a lingering recession, raging floods, furious fires, and, perhaps, soon to come the...

12. Raising Our North Stars: Kumari's Puppies at Eight to Ten Months Old

    Entry #113

    11 Sep 2013

    7:00 pm

    Patty Dobbs Gross

    0 comments

    'North Star Ben and Friends' North Star Kumari’s puppies are now ten months old and well into their adolescence, a time when pups seek to learn their boundaries; as a result, we will find ourselves setting more limits for them, hopefully with consistent and fairly predictable consequences when...

13. Raising Our North Stars: Kumari's Puppies from Six to Eight Months

    Entry #84

    03 Jul 2013

    11:20 am

    Patty Dobbs Gross

    0 comments

    North Star's Rex and Amy Kumari’s litter is now eight months old, with four of these well bred and carefully raised golden retriever pups in the midst of being shaped to work with children on the autism spectrum. The little girl in this picture is Amy, and she has been living with Kumari’s...

14. Raising Our North Stars: Kumari's Puppies from Four to Six Months

    Entry #73

    21 Mar 2013

    6:07 pm

    Patty Dobbs Gross

    0 comments

    'Jack and North Star's Nardi' Kumari’s puppies are now six months old! This tender age typically marks the beginning of adolescence with dogs, a time when commands formerly obeyed with enthusiastic puppy charm are sometimes resisted as older pups learn to think for themselves; a pup that may...

15. Raising Our North Stars: Kumari's Puppies from Two to Four Months

    Entry #68

    18 Feb 2013

    6:18 pm

    Patty Dobbs Gross

    0 comments

    Kumari’s puppies are now four months old, and from this lovely litter of seven golden retriever puppies, three females have been selected to be kept back for North Star’s evolving breeding and therapy programs, with the remaining four male pups assigned to children who are on the...

16. Raising Our North Stars: Kumari's Puppies from Birth to Two Months

    Entry #60

    27 Nov 2012

    7:20 am

    Patty Dobbs Gross

    0 comments

    by Patty Dobbs Gross North Star Kumari delivered seven healthy puppies on October 4th, 2012. Four of these puppies will be serving children on the autism spectrum as autism assistance dogs; the remaining three will be kept back to be evaluated for breeding to continue this quality line. North...

17. Myth #5: Autism Assistance Dog Placements have Nothing to do with John Q Public

    Entry #55

    08 Oct 2012

    9:26 am

    Patty Dobbs Gross

    0 comments

    by Patty Dobbs Gross 'North Star's Hero with his boy Joel at Disneyland.' We should take a moment here to first review the various therapeutic roles that a dog can play in a child with autism’s life to help them to reach their social, emotional and educational goals, as only then can we...

18. Myth #4: There are no Scientific Studies to Support Autism Assistance Dog Placements

    Entry #51

    04 Oct 2012

    5:27 pm

    Patty Dobbs Gross

    0 comments

    by Patty Dobbs Gross The years tell us much of what the days never know. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson 'Aaron and North Star's Bingo meeting for the very first time.' Anecdotally speaking, we have known that a dog can be a valuable therapeutic tool since Jingles did his thing with a progressive...

19. Myth #3: The Biggest Danger from an Autism Assistance Dog is the Hit to the Pocketbook

    Entry #49

    21 Sep 2012

    11:30 am

    Patty Dobbs Gross

    1 comments

    by Patty Dobbs Gross 'Danny & Madison' Of the top five myths about autism assistance dogs that I will cover in this column, this myth is by far the most dangerous. If you partially believe in this emerging field, at least enough to attempt to create an autism assistance dog partnership with a...

20. Myth #2: Training is the Key to Success with Autism Assistance Dogs for Children

    Entry #26

    10 Aug 2012

    11:57 am

    Patty Dobbs Gross

    0 comments

    by Patty Dobbs Gross I get by with a little help from my friends. ~ John Lennon ''David and North Star's Lego'' One of the biggest misunderstandings about the emerging field of autism assistance dogs is that it is all about the training of the dog to be partnered with the...