Martha’s whippets are helping keep kids safe
Education key to tackling dog attacks
MEET Sam and Gilly – a pair of whippets playing a crucial role in the fight against dog attacks.
With owner Martha Brindley, they tour schools to teach children how to behave around dogs, as part of a unique bid to halt the growing menace of attacks.
Nationally, the number of people taken to hospital after dog attacks rose 76% in the 10-year period up to February last year.
And young children are the most commonly affected, according to the Heath and Social Care Information Centre statistics.
However, it’s hoped Sam and Gilly can offset the terrible toll thanks to Martha’s work.
“The key to reducing biting is education,” said Martha last night.
“Showing these kids the safe way to approach dogs is key.
“Some parents don’t know the best way to introduce a pet into a family home and think it’s fine to just let kids run about with the dog, poke it, pull its ears and tail and steal its toys. “But that’s asking for trouble.” The canines met more than 1000 kids last month as part of their role as education dogs for Blue Cross, a charity which finds new homes for abandoned or unwanted pets.
Martha delivers talks to schools and youth groups for the charity about how to handle canines and – ultimately – to help reduce the number of children being bitten by dogs.
But she admits Sam and Gilly are always the stars of the show.
“Kids absolutely love the dogs, they relate better when there’s a live animal there and I can demonstrate what I’m talking about,” she said.
“The dogs love the attention too, there’s always a collective ‘awwww’ whenever I go into an assembly hall with them.”
Sam, 11, and six-year-old Gilly had to undergo rigorous assessments to prove they could handle the attentions of hundreds of excited children. They passed with flying colours and now form a key part of Martha’s demonstrations about how to handle dogs and what not to do, performing tricks and entertaining crowds along the way. “There’s no such thing as a bombsteady dog,” said Martha, 61, who has owned dogs all her life and is a Kennel Club-accredited trainer.
“But you can have them trained to a high level so they don’t react to children screaming or loud noises.”
Martha, who lives in Lugton, East Ayrshire, with her partner Duncan, is a former police officer and teaching assistant.
She also turned her hand to writing two years ago when she kept a promise to her late brother, the comedy actor Iain McColl, to finish his autobiography.
Iain, who starred in Rab C Nesbitt and City Lights, died of cancer in 2013 and money raised from the book went to the Beatson oncology clinic in Glasgow.
Martha quit her classroom role in her early 50s after suffering a mini-stroke but said working as an education volunteer for Blue Cross was a perfect fit, combining her love of dogs and children.
She is now arranging an information day in Stewarton next month for people who are thinking of getting a dog. “It is a dream job,” she said. “I’m passionate about helping people who are thinking about getting a dog because there doesn’t seem to be any education out there.
“If you don’t ask the breeder the right questions you might end up with a sick pup or one with a lot of behavioural issues that ends up needing re-homed or put to sleep.”