School puppy love

Praise for canine classmates amid biting drama

A PRIMARY school in Hobart’s northern suburbs with three dogs on campus has told of the benefits of having canine friends in the classroom.

It comes as it was confirmed to the Mercury a second student was bitten by a senior staff member’s golden retriever puppy at Richmond Primary School.

The student’s parents told the Mercury the incident caused very minor superficial abrasions to his arm, needed no medical treatment and they considered it a “non-issue”.

“Both the school and the Department of Education acted with requisite diligence, professionalism and care at all times,” they said.

“The only concern held by our son at the time was the puppy not be restricted from continuing to attend school and perform his role as the beloved school mascot.

“We feel privileged that our children attend a school that encourages interaction with animals with the positives, in our view, far outweighing any potential negatives that can’t otherwise be ameliorated by adopting some minor risk management strategies.”

Glenorchy Primary School principal Wendy Potter said they had three school dogs — Tux, Oscar and Claire — as part of a strategy to support student health and wellbeing.

“The reason we have dogs is it teaches children responsibility,” she said.

“It gives children who might be feeling sad at times or maybe a bit lonely or disconnected somebody to play with and hug. Tux spends most of his day in the reading corner and children read to him.”

Ms Potter said the canines were owned by three different staff members and all staff had to take a course on how to manage assistance dogs.

She said they also followed international guidelines about caring for working animals.

“An example is the dogs must be allowed to choose whether they work or not so there’s a bed each dog has assigned as a safe place where they can go under desks and hide from kids,” Ms Potter said.

She said the dogs were also temperament tested and they had never had an issue with one of their dogs.

Animal Welfare League Australia chief executive officer Stuart Gillies said they didn’t generally support the introduction of resident school dogs but they had published guidelines to advise schools who did.

“Keeping humans and dogs safe in schools should be the priority if you’re going to have a dog in that environment,” Mr Gillies said. “The risk of an adverse event is always there and you can minimise those risks if you do take a few steps.”

jack.paynter@news.com.au