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

My daughters school has a "school dog". It's in the process of being trained to be a therapy dog and is part of an association. It's her teachers dog and she is the trainer. We have had to sign consent forms for my daughter to be in the company of the dog. The dog is primarily for the kids that struggle with various learning and social situations. But they have all been visiting the dog in pairs and the whole class had a morning walk to the woods to play and have a picnic. The dog isn't in the school every day, and when it is, it's kept in a spare classroom. So it's all very responsible. In your situation it sounds more like it's just for the teachers convenience. However, I think you shouldn't be projecting your fears onto your son. If you feel strongly about it, you need to contact the school, it doesn't matter if you don't want to be THAT mum. Presumably this affect their insurance somehow? 🤷‍♀️

When I started school in the early 80s my first teacher had her collie in the classroom. I still remember how honoured I felt whenever it chose to lay under my desk and remember it sitting with us in the reading area. It’s a positive thing I think

Sausage dogs can be bitey

I don't think it's fair on the dogs having to be around a class of young children.

Friend of mine works in a school where some staff bring in their dogs and she's a bit pissed off by it because it depends upon them having an office or space to have the dog and strikes her rather unequal. She hasn't and also has to pay a dog walker!!

Im a massive dog lover but honestly this sounds absolutely bonkers!!!!

Ridiculous. There is no need to have two dogs there all day.

One of the teachers at my child's school lives near me & has a badly trained dog. Id be horrified and terrified for my child if it was taken into school.

One of my DC also has plenty of experience of dogs (very popular pets in our area) but hates them and with good reason. Too many people have poorly trained dogs, he's been jumped up on by large dogs a lot.

Dogs absolutely should not be in schools unless they are trained and registered assistance dogs.

I love dogs, but this is the teacher dressing it up as a good learning experience because she doesn’t want to leave her dogs at home all day and pay for a dog walker.

DD's school has a school dog. DD adores him!

I'm a teacher and I think the teacher is taking a huge risk, tbh.

I can't see how it can meet the needs of the dogs for a start. And I'm not a 'doggy person'. Maybe I'm only basing it on experience of my school but the behaviour we see coming into Reception would not let me put a dog in that situation.

I inherited a class pet one year but it showed huge signs of distress in the class room so I took it home one holiday and never took it back.

This doesn’t sound right.
I’m a deputy head and we have a dog in school but there’s a lot of paperwork, training and insurance. It is absolutely not allowed just to sit in a classroom all day.

You need to clarify this with a member of SLT.

I've worked for some organisations where staff were allowed to bring their dogs to work, but none of us did because the workplace is a professional environment and bringing home responsibilities into work isn't the professional thing to do, regardless of whether colleagues like dogs or not.

Assistance dogs - totally different. Absolutely. Crack on. But this isn't that. This is 'not sorting out doggy day care and instead bringing your responsibilities to work and dressing it up as a benefit for the kids'. That is unprofessional and selfish. Whilst I get that doggy day care is expensive, and also that teachers salaries are appalling for the work they do, the solution here isn't to bring the dog to school.

I'd kick up a fuss and watch the messages of thanks roll in on WhatsApps from the grateful parents who felt likewise but weren't prepared to say anything.

A designated school dog or other animals is fine and can be hugely beneficial to the children but a classroom pet is not fair on the animals.

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?

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

Hmmm this seems incredibly unlikely.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.