Children’s best friends

They may be small, but Kaisa and Bella have made big changes at Greerton Village School. Kaisa is a purebred maltese, while Bella is a shih-poo – a cross between a shih tzu and toy poodle.

Children's behavioural problems have decreased by half, an eight-year-old's been encouraged to get to school every weekday and the dogs are friends to more than 400 pupils.


Emily Hilditch, Bianca Curtis, Dulcie Henderson and Samual Simpson with dogs Bella and Kaisa.

'One little girl who is Year-5 was a blatant school-refuser, struggled to get to school every day,” says Greerton Village School acting deputy principal Kimberley Henderson.

'Her new job is to walk the dogs every morning and she's been at school on time every day for two weeks because of the dogs.”

Kimberley says the school's behaviour statistics decreased by 50 per cent in one week. Behaviour has improved because the children have found a friend in 5-year-old Kaisa and 4-year-old Bella.

School pupils with special needs have also become fond of the dogs – by finding things they have in common with the pooches.

'We've got a little girl at our school who has autism and asked: ‘What's wrong with the dog's nose?' and her teacher aide said: ‘The dog is special, she was born that way' and the little girl said: ‘Oh she's special like me'.”

Kimberley says Greerton Village School has a high number of children with special needs, with a number of pupils funded by the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme which provides support for pupils with the highest need for special education.

In fact, the dogs have special needs too. Bella was born with a cleft palate – a congenital split in the roof of the mouth – and Kaisa is stone deaf.

Kaisa and Bella came from a puppy farm, says Kimberley.

'They were rescued by a family from our school. They've had a very, very hard life.”

Bella now lives with Kimberley and Kaisa's new home is at school principal Anne Mackintosh's house.

Anne heard assistance dogs in New York and United Kingdom are used to assist school children with special needs, including autism.

'Research overseas shows dogs in classrooms help keep the noise level down, manage behavioural problems, help with truancy and lateness, reduce bullying, teach kindness and compassion and improve reading results,” says Kimberley.

While the dogs aren't trained assisted learning dogs, they do help in the classroom.

'We just thought it would be lovely for the dogs to go into classrooms because it teaches kindness, it teaches children to care for other animals – and obviously these puppies are delightful,” says Kimberley.

'Children who are upset about something that happened at home or at school sit with the dogs for five minutes or they take the dogs for a walk around the school on a leash – and straight away they're happy and calm. It's completely changed our school. It's like animal therapy.”

When children or classrooms want time with the puppies, they receive a ‘Puppy Pass'.

'The children just love them. We have them lined up to take them for walks. By the end of the day they are so exhausted, because they've been patted, cuddled and walked all day. They're smothered with love,” says Kimberley.

'I want the dogs to be integral part of our school. They bring joy to our school, the children love them and care for them.

'The Greerton Village School Board of Trustees gave their full blessing of this initiative and are also very excited about having the ‘learning assistants' at our school.”

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