Teacher’s dogs in classroom?

[Sunnyday14558]

Our son starts school in September. We had a meeting this evening with the new class teacher and fellow parents and the teacher dropped on that she has two sausage dogs. She said she brings one into class and is going to bring the second into class next week and ‘hopes he gets on with the kids’. All the fellow parents made a lot of ‘awww’ sounds but honestly I was a bit surprised.
is this normal in schools? She also said that if any parents were uncomfortable she’d try and work something out. I’m nervous around dogs but mostly because I have a four year old boy who doesn’t have experience being around them. I feel in an awkward situation where I don’t want to be ‘that’ parent if I say I’m not happy but equally, maybe it’s ok? So confused

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.

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.

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.

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 ......

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.

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.

🤣

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.

Sorry - forgot the cats!

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

@Mrspatmoresapprentice so just because my daughter's allergy wouldn't hospitalise her, she should have to put up with the hives, the itching, the sore eyes and the sneezing, just so the teacher doesn't have to pay a dog walker? Not to mention the groggy head from antihistamines
And they don't ask about environmental allergies at school intake either (certainly not at all schools)
They ask for food and meds allergies, I had to volunteer it and they queried whether it would even need documenting

I've just seen that they are sausage dogs too. All I'll say to that is no true dog lover would buy pups, not with all of their spinal problems from inbreeding, poor things

Please don't worry. There would be enough of an outcry from parents who would absolutely ensure it didn't happen within individual classrooms.

Our junior school head has a dog who comes to school with him - he is much loved by all the children. We are rural so kids are used to being around dogs. I suppose if one of them were allergic or something then accommodations would be made but it's never come up.

Where I used to live in the US it was traditional for fire stations to have a station dog, usually a dalmatian.

A totally diffent scenario to the situation OP is describing so this is not relevant. A child with an allergy to dogs in the situation you describe has a choice of whether to be within the vicinity of the dog. I assume it is not let loose in the classrooms

Yes, he does enter classrooms, all the time.

A station dog is different from a rule which states dogs can be brought to work which is the point of the comments referred to. 🤔

Speaking as a primary school supply teacher, family pets dressed up as "therapy/well-being dogs" is becoming more and more a thing.
I remember turning up for a day of supply a year or so ago... It was mid-winter, so I was wearing a woolly hat. This "well-being" dog started growling at me! It belonged to the head teacher, who mumbled something about, "he doesn't like people in hats..." Oh, fuck all the way off. It shouldn't be in a school if it's going to growl at someone for a completely innocent thing like a hat.

Dreadful & highly unprofessional.

Unbelievable