InfoStream Staff Writer
Terri Perrin
The urban animal industry has spoken! From April 22 - 30, in
Toronto, Halifax, Calgary and Vancouver, industry thought leaders gathered for
the 2014 Regional Urban
Animal Conferences. A high point on each agenda was the Innovation Showcase presentations.
In Halifax, Summit delegates were moved by Eileen Higginbotham’s winning presentation about the Prince Street
Puppy Project, which was one of two Innovations in the region selected to move on to the Summit level. InfoStream staff writer Terri Perrin chatted with Eileen, who is a special education teacher at Prince Street School in
Charlottetown, PEI, to learn more about how her school has ‘gone to the dogs!’
InfoStream(IS): After reviewing
your presentation it is obvious that you love dogs … and children! Tell us
about your own personal ‘Pet Experiences’ and what inspired you to bring your
dog into the classroom.
Eileen Higginbotham (EH): The Prince Street Puppy Project (PSPP)
started in December 2011 when my husband, Chris, and I added a new puppy,
Kannon, to our pack. My husband is a high school biology teacher and had been
keeping rats in his classroom and was noticing the positive connections some of
the students were making with the animals. I wondered if I could make some of
those animal-human connections with our students and our new puppy.
After
approaching my principal with the idea, and finding a teacher who would be on
board for housing the dog in the classroom during the day, we were ready to
start. Kannon came to school, and since then, we have added two more dogs,
Shazam and Archie.
IS: What challenges have you
faced, relating to funding and support from your school district.
EH: There have been no real
challenges to funding, as the only cost related to our program so far is the
treats used for the daily training sessions. Two of these dogs are mine and my
principal, Erin Johnston, owns the other. We absorb all the cost of crates,
toys, treats and veterinary care. We have good support from our school district
but that is mainly because of the impact we have had with our students and
their parents.
People often
ask us about hurdles. Many things have to be considered before starting a
program like this because it is not simply just taking a dog to school. The
success of this program hinges on the fact that I am an experienced dog person.
I have many years of dog rescue and rehabilitation experience and I’ve attended
many dog-training seminars. I am also a Special Education teacher—for children,
not dogs! I feel you really do have to be part schoolteacher and part dog
trainer to do this program justice. One must also consider things like
potential allergies, child safety, dog safety, and the logistics of caring for
the dogs.
IS: Speaking of hurdles, from looking at the Puppy Project’s Facebook page
it is obvious that your dog, Kannon, is quite the agility and fly ball star. Do
you think that participating in these ‘extra curricular activities’ helps these
classrooms dogs release tension?
EH: Yes! For sure! Dogs who get
mental and physical exercise are happy, more relaxed, and easier to live with
dogs. All of the PSPP dogs have full lives at school and at their homes. But I
don’t think dog sports are the only way to have a happy dog. Spending time with
your dog playing games such as fetch, going for a nice leash walk (or run), or
working on trick training can also provide that much needed physical and mental
stimulation.
IS: Where do you see your program
in the next five to 10 years?
EH: We have been doing the program
for just over two full calendar years now, spanning across three school years,
and we have been changing and evolving the entire time. Every day the Puppy
Project involves five teachers, eighteen to twenty students directly, and
another fifty students indirectly. Going forward, the teachers plan to look at
our project goals and programming and align them to some of our health and
science curriculum outcomes, particularly for the grades four, five, and six
levels. This more formal planning will make it easier to share as a fully laid
out school program integrated with curriculum.
IS: We understand that your
students have been invited to share the Puppy Project experiences. Tell us
about that.
EH: Our students have been asked to
author some pieces for the PEI Humane Society, from kids to kids, about what
they have learned about dogs, training, stewardship and safety. Their work will
be published on the PEIHS website. We will also add a published sharing
component, much like our Facebook and my blog, written by students to share
their thoughts and experiences. We are talking to the students now about what
form they would like that to take.
IS: What is your long-term vision for the program?
EH: I hope to see a Puppy Project
that is fully integrated into our school curriculum, covering many outcomes for
health, science, and writing. We will continue to run our daily training session
and will enhance our ability to support the behaviour resource programming
needs of incentives and self-regulation. We will broaden our impact within the community
by expanding the sharing of our stories about what we do and why it matters.
IS: How did you learn about the
Atlantic Regional Conference and how did you come to be a presenter?
EH: I was nominated to do an
Innovation Showcase presentation, so I started looking up information about the
Urban Animal Conferences. I was very excited to be invited and even more
excited to be voted forward to the Annual Summit.
IS: Tell us about your first Urban
Animal Conference experience.
EH: Going to the Urban Animal
Conference in Halifax was wonderful! It was such a great opportunity to talk to
so many different people involved in the urban animal experience. Listening to
the Innovation Showcase presenters was humbling and I was pleased to be
included in their company. The keynote speakers were interesting and I could
not believe how many different topics we covered in just a few hours. I came away
with so many new and exciting contacts. It is an experience I would highly
recommend to anyone interested in the health and welfare of our urban animals.
IS: What do you hope to take away
– or contribute to – the Summit for Urban Animal Strategies in October?
EH: I am beyond excited to be going
to the Summit and am hoping to make more contacts with like-minded
people. Of course, I am keen to share information about The Prince Street Puppy
Project and I hope to contribute to all the discussions we will be having at
the conference.
Learn more about the
Prince Street Puppy Project on Facebook
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