Teacher’s dogs in classroom?

So in effect they are saying I don't give a damn about this common allergy. We shall have dogs in schools & to hell with children who become sick.

This is ridiculous.
I am in favour of well trained dogs coming into a school for visits to support small groups for the children’s confidence with dogs and also improve emotional wellbeing and give comfort.
These dogs have proper training, trained handlers, lots of breaks and their needs met and insurance and proof of vaccination, preventative healthcare etc.

I am a huge dog lover and live and work with dogs.
There are many reasons this is a terrible idea.

Many children have allergies and may not even be diagnosed at 4!

Fear - lots of children are scared of dogs. forcing them to adjust to school AND dogs is not how to over come a fear.

It’s risky - not enough supervision and the teachers attention split between her pets and the dogs.

Reception is overstimulating, noisy and busy for dogs it’s not a place they can relax. Dogs need lots of sleep. 4 year olds get lively and loud and can be grabby.
This combination is likely to put a dog over its threshold and more likely to bite. Not fair on the dogs at all. You can’t just drop a dog into this environment and see how it goes.

It really isn’t fair on the children or the dogs and I am absolutely amazed both a teacher and a head think it is. It doesn’t show good judgement or the ability to priotise children’s safety and well being (or her dogs!) so that would give me huge concerns.

I'm a teacher. This is not common and I find it hard to believe that would be allowed to be honest (and rightly so).

I know of a headteacher that charged the school for the training of their pet to be a therapy dog and associated costs. It was nothing short of fraud.

I think some older very docile dogs would be fine with children, but it would take a very special dog to be trusted in a room with 30 excitable and unpredictable 4 year olds, some of whom might not treat the dog appropriately, and frankly could be cruel to it if not tightly supervised at all times…. The risk increases further if there are two dogs!

I expect this is being done for the benefit of the teacher, who would be bending any risk assessment to fit her needs than actually applying it objectively.

I wouldn’t be bothered by this at all. If DC has no experience of dogs, it’s a good opportunity to learn. If parents haven’t bothered to teach the children about safe behaviour around dogs, it’s good that teachers will, because children do need to learn this.

I’m with you on this.

I think you need to write to the HT then the chair of governors. Point out the following:

1. While the teacher is keeping an eye out for her dogs, this may affect the teacher’s ability to keep an eye on the children
2. As the children are very young, there may be some with undiagnosed allergies to animal dander
3. Statistically speaking, there are likely to be children who are scared of dogs
4. In some cultures, dogs are viewed differently (strays, dangerous, not kept as pets but as working animals, unclean) and in a multicultural society it is not inclusive to force their presence on children who have different cultural backgrounds

The reason I recommend writing to HT and governors is because governing bodies value parental input as catalyst for change where precedent has already been set. In this case, there has likely been an agreement for the teacher to have her pet with her. For example, I wrote to the HT and CoG about sweets being handed out on children’s birthdays. I pointed out that it undermined my authority, caused cavities, stopped my children eating their dinner and conflicted with the school’s healthy eating policy. I got a thank you and ‘We were debating this and your letter provided the evidence we needed to stop this’

Request a class move due to the dogs and say you'd like to understand the insurance situation.

It's just not appropriate. You don't have to be apologetic or critical, just say you would not have chosen this school if you'd been informed so need a resolution which would be moving classes.

Do you genuinely think that a school, with health and safety and insurance and boards of governance, didn't consider this before allowing it?

This is what I'm asking? Do you think that schools are so clueless that they haven't done a risk assessment?

If you genuinely think schools are like this for dogs, why would you trust sending your child to school at all? What other reckless things are they doing that wasn't considered before MN?

We need some grounded perspective here......

I would be interested about insurance. Normal pet policies don't cover taking the dog to work.

So let's just ignore children who are highly allergic to dogs which is not uncommon. Those who are pro dogs in schools may not be so keen if it was their own child whose asthma became worse or they arrived home every day with streaming itchy eyes, hives & breathing difficulties. The whole idea is outrageous.

Whilst unlikely to do any damage (look at the size of them!), they can get nippy when stressed, she’s taking an unnecessary risk.

DS’s best friend has a little terrier style dog (unsure which) and I went to stroke it one day, it snapped at me and nipped my hand. His mum then said she used to be a primary school teacher, she took it to school a few times but some of the kids terrorised it so now it gets scared and nips a lot…

So yeah, I’d be worried about the kids annoying the dogs too.

Frankly, if I was genuinely concerned that my child could be bitten by a dog so badly that it would lead to an insurance claim (-‘s it would need to be serious for insurance to kick in), then my reaction would be to ensure that my child wasn’t in the class or the dog wasn’t in the classroom, not whether they had insurance…

It really doesn’t make any sense to think “As long as I can make an insurance claim if my child gets seriously attacked by a dog, then I’m fine with the risk that my child might be seriously attacked by a dog.” Talk about warped priorities!

Schools have to follow certain protocols regarding dogs in schools. They should have a policy, and a risk assessment. You can’t just rock up to school with your dog/s. Many schools do have dogs, the school I taught at did and they are great for generating calm, teaching children how to care and listening to children. Some schools just have therapy dogs to visit.
You need to check out the situation on the school website.

This sounds eerily like a school I once worked in. Head who loved a particular breed of dogs (different to this one) brought his in and teachers were allowed to bring that breed in. It was a nightmare. Hated that school this was one of many issues including that all female staff (head was male) were expected to wear heals and make up. In a primary school.

We don’t hate dogs, we have one and regularly foster for the rescue we got him from (also have teenagers not small children) but I wouldn’t be happy with this. It’s very different from having a therapy dog in the office or the heads dog that stays in their office and only visits the classrooms with them etc. I wouldn’t be bothered by that. Also as others have pointed out, Dachshunds are notoriously hard to train. They wouldn’t be a breed id choose to be around young unpredictable children.

I think it's common sense to shield your children from extremely distressing allergies especially peanuts.

Totally normal these days to have a school dog. Most hospitals have them too.

I know a teacher who sometimes takes her dog in. I was really surprised when she told me. What about kids with allergies or phobias? What about the dog's welfare? I think the allergy and dog welfare charities aren't keen on it.

On the specifics here

She also said that if any parents were uncomfortable she’d try and work something out.

This isn't how bringing a dog in should be managed. Ahead of agreeing with that the dog could be brought in, the various possible scenarios should have been considered and the action to be taken in each case planned. This teacher has clearly failed to do that and is winging it, and also thinking it's totally fine and normal effectively tell a group of parents that they're winging it. This would make me think this teacher lacks good judgement generally, and would make me wonder whether they'd actually be a good person to have in the life of a young, impressionable child.

It's not 'like' saying anything. There are literally hundreds of blogs, including OFSTED, that is giving reasoning for the dogs in schools programmes.

It includes why they feel it's a benefit, safeguarding procedures etc.

So, my point is, schools are making this the norm. That was the OPs question. Additionally, there are procedures they follow. They have safeguarding issues they have to manage etc. The teacher isn't just going rogue.

So, if there are concerns, bring them up to the school. It's okay to feel nervous etc but each parent should approach the school as per their childs individual circumstance. Let's not all pretend each child has a circumstance, though.

There are governing bodies that took this into consideration before outraged MNers.

This is like saying there is a national movement towards bringing peanuts into schools with absolutely no consideration for children who are highly allergic to nuts. There were at least 4 children in my sons class who were allergic to dog dander & that's not including the children with asthma & having to carry inhalers. Allergy to dogs may not cause anaphlactic shock although the hay-fever like symptoms along with hives in the area a dog licks them, if they end up on the tongue they can cause breathing difficulties. There would be an absolute outcry from those parents if dogs were brought into the classrooms and rightly so.

Hmmm this seems incredibly unlikely.

Been a teacher in various schools since 2012, never seen a dog in school.

I’d be concerned about this too. Seems like the teacher is using the children, classroom setting, and school environment as tools to enhance her dogs socialisation……not ideal IMO!
Starting ‘big school’ is challenging enough for youngsters with added stress to contend with. How can the teacher dedicate her time, something she is PAID to do, in teaching the pupils with her dog there? Sounds a crazy proposition to me and would those parents be still saying ‘awwww’ when the dog has nipped their children?