In standout cases, therapy dogs have helped school students with selective mutism speak, but with more dogs appearing in schools, experts say there should be more regulation.
St Helena Secondary College principal Karen Terry’s office may be covered in dog hair, but she thinks it’s a small price to pay for the difference pups Frankie and Ash – named after Aretha Franklin and Ash Barty – have made to the school community.St Helena Secondary College students Matilda Walpole and Liam Young with wellbeing dogs Frankie and Ash.Once rare in schools, therapy or wellbeing dogs are now a common sight.
“Therapy dogs are recognised, but when you get into wellbeing dogs and emotional support dogs – they are terms coming out of America that really ... don’t have any sort of legal standing in Australia at all,” he said. PAWS’ program, which costs up to $19,734 for the first year and includes one therapy dog and training for three school staff, ensures its animals meet Service Animals Australia’s standards.Canine Comprehension founder Sarah Macdonald said her service did monitoring and evaluation and had created academic learning programs for schools to use with its dogs.
Macdonald said her service had gone from 10 to 50 schools with various programs in the past 10 years, across kindergarten to year 12. “They’ll start speaking to the dog and start giving words to the mentor, and you see teachers or parents who are watching our session just sobbing,” Macdonald said. “The idea of connection ... giving them something to want to come to school for, but then coupling it with learning to understand another being that doesn’t speak our language and communicate ... that became a really strong link directly to social emotional curriculum in Victoria,” he said.At St Helena, students can book in for “pats and chats” and the dogs get rest days. Students are given briefings before spending time with the dogs and the dogs’ wellbeing is constantly monitored.
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