Teacher’s dogs in classroom?

I'm a teacher who owns a dog. I'm hearing a lot of this lately. I know of a couple of teachers who do this in different schools, and it's so they can save on dog walking costs. It's all dressed up as 'therapy dogs'. It makes me mad, because I know exactly what their game is. So they don't have to shell out £400 a month for someone to take their dog out.

Soeaking as someone who thinks dogs can generally fuck off, I would definitely say something. What if a kid with allergies joins the school?

Moving on from any initial “awww!” reaction, I think it’s a clear breach of safeguarding practice.
The breed is notorious, as per PPs’ comments plus there’s the simple matter of hygiene.
If for some reason they are actually allowed into the classroom, they need to be in a pen (like a play pen) and closely supervised. They also need to have “time out” away from 30+ curious & noisy young children.

Also, I’m intrigued as to how the teacher is going to actually teach their pupils when all they want to do is look at & play with the dogs.

🤣 ... what a farce it all is, this dog obsession!

Demand to see the risk assessment - this should cover all of the potential H&S issues of having a dog in the classroom; a child having an allergy, the dog using the 'toilet' in the classroom, the dog displaying aggressive behaviour, a child being injured. They should then specify the control measures in place to prevent these

Along with the suggestions about checking the insurance I agree with this, @jdb9803, especially as it doesn't sound as if much has been done already

With any luck the sheer hassle of getting it all in place might be enough for the school to tell the dog owner it isn't going to work

You missed the Firebrigade. Fire fighters have rights too if they wish to take their dogs to work as is advocated by many owners. As long as their dogs are trained to slide down the pole I don't see the issue.

Sorry - forgot the cats!

🤣

Waiting for Godot, with a couple of overexcited spaniels dashing about the stage.

And what about cats? They shouldn't be left out. They could be wandering around courtrooms pushing evidence onto the floor and sleeping on the judge's notes, or trying to eat the tasty morsels in the operating theatre.

I think it's a nice idea, but I'd be concerned that the dogs could accidentally get injured. Their size and build means that they're easy to get underfoot and could get hurt.

There was a dog at my children's primary but it mostly hung around in the nurture room / reception area.

With my experience of sausage dogs, I wouldn't be keen on it either! But I do like schools having dogs, but one (or two) in a classroom all the time seems a bit much. DD's upper school has a school dog but its mostly in one of the special ed teacher's office, occasionally students (seemingly random samples as well as those that need to) go do their work there and get to stroke the dog too and I think if a student feels overwhelmed in class they also have the option to go there, so sort of a therapy dog.

Personally I think the dogs' rights to the company of their owner is paramount. Everyone should bring their dogs with them to work: MPs in Parliament, hospital consultants, GPs, high court judges, binmen, scaffolders, TV announces, actors on stage, nurses.

We really can't have these poor dogs left at home feeling lonely ......

Not to mention children potentially taking home dog fur etc (especially if the teacher thinks it's OK to let the dogs lie on people's jumpers ) that might set off a reaction in a member of their household.

I’ve taught in primary for decades and this is highly unusual. We have had trained therapy dogs and one school dog-both based with non-teaching SLT and utilised with an adult for 1:1 sessions. No teachers have ever brought their dogs into the classroom for anything other than a 10 minute visit for ‘Pet week’!

I’d contact the head expressing your concerns and asking what the purpose of this is. I’d also be asking to see the Risk Assessment.

I think that the teacher is being highly unprofessional here and I’m surprised that the headteacher allows it. I used to teach at a school where two teachers kept their dogs in the car all day and just took them out at break and lunchtime- poor dogs.

This is the equivalent of saying a child with a peanut allergy is extremely rare & it may or may not cause anaphylaxis. Even if there is one in the classroom known to have this reaction let's not worry as it may not be serious & merely cause a few breathing difficulties equivalent to an asthma attack. This means there is no need to worry about this child so go ahead class bring in your peanuts & enjoy them.

Rare as it may be, although not in my experience, even if there is one child in a class who has a mild or potentially serious allergy that is one too many to even consider a proposal to bring dogs into classrooms.

Research shows that while around 5.5% of children may test positive for dog allergies, only 1.7% of them will show any symptoms at all. So yes, it IS quite rare.
Obviously if a child has a severe allergy that would be unfair but severe reactions are incredibly rare.

Teacher here, my school has a school dog. It was selected and trained to be in a school environment. It’s a miniature schnauzer as they are supposed to be good for allergies. It does not work with R-Y2 and only visits small groups of Y3 and Y4 either on walks or at reading group times. It joins literacy lessons in Y5 and 6. The pastoral lead uses it for walks with children to have “little chats” or movement breaks. It only spends about half of any day around children.

Two dogs just constantly being in the classroom sounds a lot! Especially if it’s play based Reception!

Awk not schools next. My wee one is allergic and just couldn’t cope with this.

Has someone posted this already?

https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/static/bccea094-8974-47f7-9431347f95fe8f43/Dogs-on-School-Sites-Guidance-for-School-Leaders.pdf

Teach the child safe behaviour around the dog.

This is an important lesson. But one to be done with a child and a dog that's known to be comfortable with children. Not 30 children and 2 dogs, one of which has no experience of the classrooom situation (possibly none with children at all) and is likely to be very stressed.

You haven’t addressed allergies.

DS would be absolutely miserable with a dog in the room, eyes and nose streaming, wheezing. And that’s when dosed up on antihistamines and inhalers.

Does he have to leave his class, his teacher, his friends so someone gets to bring their dog in? Because that’s the only solution I can see here for him.

Dog allergies are not rare so it’s very likely there will be an allergic child in the class. How is this fair on them @Mrspatmoresapprentice?

And if the HT and Governors don't help, Ofsted

This is reasonable.
Also what insurance coverage do they have to cover any potential accidents that may occur.

Even the calmest of dogs can be unexpectedly irritated by something.
Children can be noisy, a class of 25-30 of them could cause sensory overload.

Completely unreasonable and unprofessional of her to think the children should have to adapt to school for the first time and her dog.

Or the teacher can simply leave their dogs at home like the majority of teachers seem to be able to manage.

A dog that size can do a lot of damage - especially to a 4 year old!
Unless there is a reason other than the teacher not wanting to pay for daycare the dogs should not be there