Our Blog
Ensuring the Safety and Well-being of Our Students: A Message from Canine Comprehension
Dear Educators,
We want to take a moment to address a recent incident that has been brought to our attention and has raised concerns within our community. SafeWork NSW is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding a serious bite incident involving a school support dog at a NSW school.
Canine Comprehension have often been concerned about the ethics and safety of a full time school support dog and want to take a moment to discuss the difference between how such dogs are managed, compared with our Therapy Dogs.
The safety and well-being of students and staff have always been at the forefront of our mission. We are deeply saddened in hearing about this shocking incident and would like to emphasise why our organisation chose not to endorse school support dogs and rather focused on dog assisted therapy intervention programs.
Our commitment to ensuring a safe and supportive learning environment is unwavering, and this incident reinforces the importance of our approach. We firmly believe that busy principals, teachers and aides, who have numerous responsibilities that demand their attention, means that for them to focus exclusively on a support dog while attending to their many duties is almost impossible.
Here are some key reasons why Canine Comprehension prefers schools to use our therapy dogs for incursions, rather than take on the heavy responsibility of a support dog themselves:
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Scheduled Breaks: We have always recognised the importance of providing our therapy dogs with regular breaks. Our dogs work for a maximum of one hour before having a break. This practice ensures that our dogs remain refreshed and stress-free, minimising the likelihood of incidents occurring due to stress.
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Diverse School Environment: Our dogs often move from one school to another, allowing them adequate downtime between trips. This approach is designed to reduce stress and provide our dogs with the opportunity to recover from any potential stressors encountered during their work.
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Professional Assessment: Our therapy dogs are not only highly trained but also continually assessed by their owners (our mentors) for stressors. Our experienced mentors closely monitor their dogs, understand their body language, and look for any signs of intimidation or stress. This ongoing assessment helps us maintain a safe, ethical and controlled environment.
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Guidelines for Interaction: We have strict guidelines in place for how young people should interact with our therapy dogs. It is our policy to prevent situations like the one mentioned in the recent incident. For instance, we do not allow individuals to put two hands around the dog, and we always ensure that the dog has the choice to leave any interaction.
Read our entire behaviour management statement here
In addition to these measures, we want to highlight that we have been concerned with school support dogs for a while, as we have seen 'near misses' first hand! Unfortunately, we have observed that in some cases, these school support dogs appeared stressed, exhibiting behaviours such as barking, pulling at the lead, and being clearly seeking comfort away from the students. To address these concerns, our CEO has taken proactive steps to meet with the leadership of these schools and raise awareness about the potential dangers associated with overstressed or mismanaged support dogs in school settings. But we can only provide advice, if a school decides to include a support dog into their community they must manage it with a careful, whole school approach, which includes time release for the handler and dog as well as continued professional development.
We want to reassure you that we are committed to maintaining the highest standards when it comes to the safety and well-being of everyone involved in our therapy dog programs. We deeply value the trust you have placed in us, and we remain dedicated to providing a secure and enriching environment for your young people.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding our practices or the recent incident, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. ABC article can be accessed here.
We appreciate your continued support and are here to address any inquiries you may have.
Thank you for entrusting Canine Comprehension - Dog Assisted Learning with the well-being of your students.
Warm regards,
The entire CC team.