Thanks Sue. You clarified it so much better than I could.

Have you spoken with Susie? has she told you how well it went??

It took me 2 hours to hoover up all of Nieko's fur out of the car adn that was after using the big seat covers too!!

Have heard how well it went, how good the dogs were at performing on cue & about the teacher who you asked a question & she was caught out as she wasn't listening fully. Lovely thank you letters too. Hope the next one goes as well if not better,

Well done
As a retired teacher- 30 yrs mainly with yr 3-7 yr olds I think what you are doing is absolutely brilliant and should happen in every school-should be almost compulsory

The number of children I have taught
who were scared of dogs-often because stupid parent have told them-that dog will bite you
or who would come up and grab a dog they have never met-often with their parent watching and oohing and aaahing

On many occasions I have been on playground duty,when a dog has wandered into the playground and the children have screamed and shouted,almost hysterical,making matters 100% worse.

At the school I taught at for most of that time I was the only animal lover on the staff,but I made sure that the children I sent up to the next class had been taught to respect all animals

In those days we had more freedom re.the curriculum,so I was able to do Topic work on keeping and caring for pets.
We had a PET DAY and they were allowed to bring in their pet-after arranging the details with me and their parents - and it went so well.
Id had told them about my dogs-Sandy and Ginger ,both rescued from the streets-Sandy when he appeared as a stray on the school playground ( -different school-inner city Liverpool )and had shown them photos ,one of their first questions was Miss, do they bite.?

(Of course I wanted them not to get the idea that they could go up to any dog and stroke it-they had to ask the owner first,but I did NOT want them to think that all dogs would bite them)
They had begged me to bring them in .I promised I would and we discussed how they had to be-quiet and calm-no shouting and screaming and that they would NOT be forced to stroke them if they didnt want to

I brought them in for an hour-and it was so rewarding to see the children who had previously been terrified now wanting ,with a little re-assurance-to stroke them .We did lots of talking about what they needed and how they should be treated.

I had so many parents afterwards thanking me and saying how much their child had enjoyed it all and how they had come home telling their parents about how to look after a dog,cat hamster etc.Even the children who would do ANYTHING apart from read or write ( or anything else for that matter) wanted to use the books we had and make their own to take home!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only down side was that ,at the end of the day when the pets who had stayed(as some obviously could only be with us for a short time) were being taken home-there was a budgie waiting -I asked the child who was coming to pick her up with her budgie and will never forget what she said

Oh its not mine ,miss,its my nannas and she said you can keep it cos its a dirty little ******
and off she went leaving the budgie with its new owner -me ,who was and is totally against keeping birds in cages!!!!

What you are doing
-helping
to educate children to treat animals with respect - must go a long way to cut down the no. of dog attacks-often caused partly or wholly by the actions of the owner or the child concerned,it may also help to cut down the no.of cases of animal neglect

So again ,well done you are doing a great job
Maureen

Doesn't take much to send a playground of kids hysterical... and the effect a wasp or spider in a classroom can have... gawd

Thanks Maureen. We've had a lot of advice as time has gone on, particularly recently from 2 teachers, i retired and 1 currently teaching in a primary school. SO being able to know now how children think a little more and how things like visual aids can help get the point across has made a big difference both to us in our delivery of the talk and tot he children as well I think.

Maureen - you've hit the nail on the head there. If I could get to every primary school aged child nationally then there would be a whole generation of people growing up who would have a new found respect and hopefully lack of fear (although I think care and caution are good things) of dogs.

We swap the dogs around too. We use two dogs for each talk so they each have a rest and don't have to work too hard on each talk. Yesterday we used my friend's/colleague's dogs and the next time we'll use two of mine.

The hardest part is sending out so many e-mail letters to schools. It's tedious and seems to take forever but when you see the enjoyment it gives botht eh ogs and kids, plus we enjoy doing it too, then it's worth the effort; even moreso if we can prevent a child from being bitten.

As a matter of interest, what evidence do you give, if any, that your dogs are suited to this task?

We used to have an event held at our centre every year called Think Safe, this incorporated how to behave around dogs, as well as fire service, railways, police etc teaching about safety.

Due to the cut backs it has been cancelled this year, one of the casualties, such a shame, such a lot of children missing out.

I think any of these initiatives are great however from a H & S and legal perspective I would want to be able to demonstrate to the relevant authorities that the dogs involved were suitable via a proof of competency, the same was as I would expect, as an employer, proof of competency from any human coming onto my site/working for me etc and/or, in this case, as a parent of a child in school.

That is why I am interested in how stumpywop demonstrates this to safeguard both her interests and those of the children.

Sad isn't it----I used to take a dog to mainstream school when I taught and then my JRT came often to the special school I taught at. Both would have been accepatable PAT dogs but it wasn't required then and the kids and the dogs got a lot of pleasure from the interactions.

I had hamsters which did more damage to the kids!

Now I expect there would be so much red tape and fuss it wouldn't be worth the hassle. Bit like tree climbing, conkers and roller skating---which we did in the playground when I was a kid.

Soon we will need forms to be signed when kids go to stay on overnights with friends with animals.

rune

A bit OT---but interesting and funny!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ing-GEESE.html

rune