Do dogs belong in the classroom? The increasing use of service/therapy dogs for children with autism is bringing that debate into schools. Parents who find that the specially trained canines make a major difference in their children's calm, balance, and safety want that benefit to extend to the school day; administrators fear that dogs will be disruptive and start an avalanche of pets on campus; and the courts are left to decide whether these dogs are necessary to the children's functioning in the way that a seeing-eye dog is, and thus mandated for inclusion, or just a calming and therapeutic presence, in which case they can stay home.
Personally, I doubt that a dog in the classroom could be as disruptive as an out-of-control autistic child, and having a canine companion might confer a little "cool" on a kid that could perform a social service. On the other hand, there are certainly some "rights-vs.-rights" issues involving children with allergies and those who fear dogs. At least one court has sided with dog-inclusion on this issue, and it will be interesting to see how those classroom situations work out.
Not to make light of the situation, but all this talk of dogs at school has got my mind wandering to dogs at IEP meetings. Let's train some pooches to bark whenever they hear jargon, obfuscation, or twists of law; to guard the door if professionals try to report and run; to provide a calming and blood-pressure-lowering presence for parents; and to pee on the paperwork if that is the only logical response. What kind of canine assistance would you like to have? Bark it out in the comments.
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We have bringing therapy dogs to schools providing animal assisted interventions for over 6 years providing comfort to over 3,000 children. Soul Friends, Inc also believes in the importance in demonstrating its effectiveness – our Come, Follow Me! program for special needs children has consistently demonstrated an improvement in human-human and dog-human eye contact, as well an increased sense of body awareness. These results have been presented at national and international conferences. It is also important to remember the health and well-being of the therapy animal – at all times so, observation of program success should not only look at improvement for children but also have strict guidelines in place for protection of the therapy animals involved in programs. It has been an honor and a blessing to partner with my therapy animals for all these years on Soul Friends mission “to heal the hearts of children one wagging tail at a time”.
Kate Nicoll, LCSW
I would love to hear more about this. I have a trained therapy dog and have not been able to find a place to really take her. Most places, especially schools, are not receptive. Can anyone tell me where to would be a good place to start?
I’m an obedience trainer, and also have trained two dogs for DELTA society. We do animal assited therapy with one of our dogs. If you’re looking for a place to bring your dog CERTIFIED therapy dog, many hospitals already have programs established, just contact their volunteer services department. We also participate in the READ program, in schools, which is a lot of fun and a great program for students who are struggling with their reading skills. Animal assisted therapy is done with the speech pathologists or occupational therapists. My dogs love it!
I am sorry to say that with pet allergies this may not not be a possible solution. My daughter has autism and is deathly allergic to dogs. I want to help other kids just as much as everyone else, but not at the expence of my daughters life. If my daughter is in a room with a dog her throat swells closed and she stops breathing. How can we place the importance of one childs calmness above another childs health and safety. If a dog was in her class she would not be able to attend that school. Does the parent of the child with the helper dog understand the allergy issue is just as big as their childs issues?