Canine visitors teach interaction

By JO MCKENZIE-MCLEAN — The Press

A five-year-old boy bit­ten by a dog out­side a Christchurch school high­lights the import­ance of teach­ing chil­dren how to approach canines, a school prin­cipal says.

South Brighton School prin­cipal John Bockett said the new entrant had walked out­side the school gate to where two dogs were tied up and had gone to pat one when it “nipped him on the lip”.

An ambu­lance was called to ensure the boy had a tetanus shot and was not in shock, he said.

The dogs’ owner walked the anim­als to school every day and was “dev­ast­ated” by the incid­ent. The police said they would not be lay­ing charges.

Bockett said it under­lined the value of the school’s safe-dog scheme.

Six can­ine edu­cat­ors – spe­cially trained and inde­pend­ently assessed dogs – had reg­u­larly vis­ited the school for the past two years.

As well as teach­ing chil­dren how to inter­act safely, the dogs could also com­fort chil­dren who had been through trau­matic events or had spe­cial needs.

Bockett said the pro­gramme was intro­duced after a pupil had been mauled by a dog over­seas, and was ter­ri­fied of the animals.

“They star­ted to bring a dog and put it in an enclosed baby’s playpen and the child got used to the dog around her. In the end, she looked after the dog and wasn’t scared any more.

“There is research about how dogs settle a lot of kids with spe­cial needs and kids exposed to violence.”

Year 5–6 teacher Therese Falconer said her dog, Finn, a reg­u­lar classroom mem­ber, had helped the chil­dren and made them more com­fort­able with canines.

DEAN KOZANIC/The Press — FOUR-LEGGED FRIEND: South Brighton school teacher Therese Falconer’s dog Finn is a pop­u­lar class visitor.