AUTISTIC CHILDREN WARM TO CANINE COMPANIONS

Founder of animal-assisted therapy program seeing results

Wu Qi was debilitatingly shy when he was very young and refused to talk to most people until one day he found a newborn puppy in a trash can.

Now, the 38-year-old is cheerful, optimistic and has become known as a "dog whisperer", an animal behavior expert and a founder of China's first animal-assisted therapy program. Wu is also called "Uncle Dog" by many autistic children.