Headteachers personal dog in playground whats your opinion

Sadly, a large number of dog owners are selfish Twats and those taking their dog into their work environment and forcing others to tolerate their presence are the biggest Twats of all.

@Grk Find out what fears your Head suffers from and force them to endure it in an enclosed space with everyone else taking the piss out of them for being pathetic.

Obviously, you won’t do that because it’s deeply unpleasant but so many posters on this thread can’t see the correlation and are advocating doing exactly that to other adults and children.

DD spends each of her 1-2-1s with her Tutor with a spaniel on her knee (we have working spaniels at home) 🤣. They really help with nervous kids especially when they first start school or if kids need to talk about personal issues.

@twistyizzy sorry, hadn't rtft. Yes very common.

All the heads I have known have a dog on site. And currently my DC is being taught with a puppy in one of his classrooms!

The puppy sleeps after all the attention!

Seems to be much more common in independent schools because as I posted above DDs school is exactly the same.

Slightly different but I work on a relatively small further education campus where both the caretaker and counsellor bring their dogs to work on the pretext of them being 'emotional support' for the students. Although trained, both dogs are let to run around - always with their owner but they are excitable..running up to people, down corridors.. the assumption is 'everyone loves my dog' the dog 'makes this a caring and supportive environment' it doesn't work for me and I imagine not others.

Have you been in a primary school? A dog is going to be one of the most hygienic beings in it 😅

Unless you have very specific concerns relating to your own children, or yourself, then I would leave it.

I think it's a pretty common thing. My kids' school had dogs around. They absolutely loved it and for most people, it will be a nice situation. There were a very small number of complaints and it has now ceased. My eldest has left, but my youngest really misses the dogs. Even though we have our own dog!

Mine have both been to prep school and senior school privately where lots of staff have their dogs on site all day. It's normal.

In fact the reason we chose the prep school was because the head had his two collie dogs lying in front of the fire in his study and we wanted our children to be around that kind of environment.

I think dogs add massively to a learning environment and as long as they are well trained and on a lead, I don't see an issue.

The Head at the kids' school brings her dog in, and does end of day gate duty with the dog with her. Dog even has her own school tie that clips onto her collar which the kids (and parents) think is hilarious, and has been known to be sitting at the reception desk for parents evenings at points.

Head doesn't push the dog onto kids who don't want to engage with it, dog is on a lead close to the Head at all times, and is beautifully behaved.

It's rumoured that pilfering of tennis balls from the PE cupboard and managing to get them out of the school gate has reduced dramatically though.

Teachers at my sons school brought their dogs in to class although many of them lived on site as well.
My boys loved it
The dogs used to sit next to the teachers or follow them around the classroom.
I can see if some kids have allergies or phobias it would be an issue but I never heard of it being a problem at their school.
Many found them a calming influence.

Easily comparable.

I had a boss years ago who had pet Tarantulas and luckily, spiders don’t bother me so I was fine visiting her house. Other colleagues wouldn’t have driven past her front door as the thought of massive spiders wandering around would completely freak them out.

Luckily my boss wasn’t a twat and would never bring them to work or minimise the staff’s distress if they said they were afraid of spiders, unlike the selfish Head in this case.

school is a great place to learn to overcome fear , parents obviously havent succeeded

Sadly, some of you seem to think that having a fear of dogs is unreasonable and the children should be made to get over it.

What’s your own fear? If you were expected to tolerate your particular phobia on a daily basis at work, I’m sure you’d be the first to complain about your Human Rights being breached.

Clearly kids feelings don’t matter? 🤷🏻‍♀️

So you didn't check with them all then, gotcha.

As per the OP, parents are nervous of bringing things like this up and getting on the 'wrong side' of the school. And there's absolutely no chance a 6 year old would have the wherewithal to stand up to their teacher and say they're uncomfortable with a dog in the classroom, most would just sit silently feeling on edge. Even if 99% of the children are fine with dogs (doubtful), 1% will be uncomfortable. Children should be learning and having fun at school, not worrying about whether there will be a dog roaming the halls when they pop to the toilet.

Neither the children or parents should even be put in the position of having to question this. Dogs don't belong in schools, no matter how cute you think they are.

Do as I say not as I do springs to mind

There is a small school dog belonging to the receptionist at our DCs primary and its a very beneficial situation for the children. There were forms to fill out giving permission for contact and if allergies are known about.
The children allowed to see it are allowed to take their work to show to the dog, or walk or stroke it. It's helped hugely with our DDs fear of dogs as its allowed her regular contact with a calm predictble dog to get over her fear.

I can see the benefit of having a dog in a school occasionally but I would prefer it to be a properly trained dog specifically for that purpose rather than just someone’s pet- and I do have a dog so no issues whatsoever with dogs.

My dog has done the courses to be able to visit at the care home over the road from us as the residents always used to speak to us while out walking and asked us to bring him in so we put him through getting the certificates he needed to be allowed to do that. So I trust my dog, he’s lovely, we also have a 10 month old daughter so he is “used” to being around a young child and is amazing with her. He’s great natured, friendly, has never snapped or gave me any reason to think for a second that he would do anything to anybody- but even despite all that I wouldn’t take him into a school environment every day.

All the children loved him? You checked with them all separately?

Yes, 70 children in the school, all had voices, all had parents to advocate for them if there were potential problems. Satisfied?

You're right, tarantulas are much smaller and there's no risk of them hurting a child, shitting in the hall or pissing up the classroom wall. There's no comparison.

My first thought was that because it is due to lack of doggy day care, else why do it.

If it’s risk assessed then fine. Usually they should be in school from very early so it’s normal to them, harder with a rescue.

I think they should be trained therapy dogs, not just teachers pets from home

Not the point but I love the idea of a dog being a professional 😆 My dog is a professional pain in the arse.

All the children loved him? You checked with them all separately?

Because I can guarantee there were several children who were nervous or downright terrified of a dog being in what should have been a safe space for them, but too embarrassed to speak up in front of their peers.

school is a great place to learn to overcome fear , parents obviously havent succeeded

you dont know it is due to lack of dog day care
and how can you compare this to a tarantula?

I would actually prefer DD was learning and having fun with her friends at school, instead of being forced to 'overcome her fears' because some selfish twat thinks everyone in that school should enjoy her pet roaming the halls as much as she does.

DD might overcome her fear at some point, when she is ready, with the help of their DH and I, in a suitable environment, with a dog and owner that we know.