School Dog - Advantages and Disadvantages?

[Diegomolly1]

Hi, does anyone have any pros and cons for a school dog please? Parents were not consulted and the children were informed first. Disappointed the communication from the Head was so late as it had been in the pipeline for a while. My other worry is that if the dog is not deemed suitable to attend in school there will be a lot of very disappointed children. But apart from this any experiences in other schools greatly appreciated. Many Thanks

Ours is a therapy dog, she's exceptionally well trained. She goes into classes to diffuse situations, if a child is struggling they can go to the office to give her a stroke and a chat, perhaps take her for a walk with a member of staff. She's kind of united them in something to love, if that makes sense

We weren't consulted either, can't imagine why we would be tbh.

Out of interest, what happens when you do have a child allergic to dogs in the school? Which I imagine is fairly common as allergies to dogs aren’t rare.

I think dogs visiting schools could be beneficial if done correctly - the dog is chosen specifically for this purpose and trained up. I think the problem comes when a school gets a dog because the deputy fancied having one herself or the head teacher didn’t want to pay for a dog walker for their own dogs.

OP, if you want to be more in touch with what is being considered in school, then perhaps consider becoming a school Governor so your voice and opinions are heard.

I am sorry to hear that some of you have children who are nervous around dogs, we know from parents that the vast majority of our children were nervous and some would scream. However since having the dog, they are calmer when they see dogs doing the street and a number of our mums have fed back that it has helped them too as they did not want to pass this reaction onto their children.

OP, I am sorry you don't like my style but my first responsibility lies to the pupils, and I know what difference Coco the learning dog has made to the pupils, their wellbeing and their learning.

They have to have a special licence and be on a lead at all times

Says who?

You have to have a risk assessment including Toxocariasis. They typically fall under standard insurance but you have to notify your insurers.

My friend is the safeguarding lead at a school which took on a dog and this was the terms under which it could be insured.

One of our local schools has a school dog (and also school chickens as well but that's another issue). The "dog" even has a twitter account where updates are posted about which class they've been hearing read, or which teacher's sandwiches they've snaffled or the like.

It's a bit gimmicky - the school in question is very in to jumping for every educational gimmick going - but the kids and parents of the school in question seem to like it.

Dog actually belongs to one of the school office staff and spends downtime lying on the office staff's feet serving double duty as a footwarmer.

My daughters school had a class rabbit when she was in reception, he wasn't hutched but wandered around the classroom. It was deemed a privilege to sweep up his droppings........

In my first class I inherited a Guinea pig who was hutched because he wasn't very strokable. He sadly didn't have a very happy life, though it was a suspiciously long one, I suspected while he was on "holiday" he was replaced with lookalikes several times but could never prove it.

I think on rthe whole I would have preferred a school dog.