Innovation Showcase Update: Prince Street Puppy Project

When Eileen Higginbotham presented the Prince Street Puppy Project to Summit 2014 delegates, it was facing some legislative dilemmas. The classrooms are still devoid of dogs, but progress is being made and efforts are underway to change policies. Have a look at this PowerPoint update sent in from Eileen! 

Prince Street Puppy Project Update

Alliance for Urban Animals extends support to Puppy Project

Louis McCann
InfoStream Guest Author 

Some of you recently attended the 9^th Summit for Urban Animal Strategies, in Alberta, Canada. Its mission is to support and develop successful strategies for urban animals and to provide recognition for those who lead. 

One such leader in attendance this year was Eileen Higginbotham, a special education teacher from Prince Edward Island. Eileen came to the Summit as part of this year’s Innovation Showcase to present her program, The Prince Street Puppy Project.  

The Prince Street Puppy Project was started in 2011 at Prince Street School in Charlottetown, PEI. Every day, specially selected dogs would come to the school to interact with and engage students. Ms. Higginbotham was able to demonstrate how her program used integrated animal experiences to promote leadership and build empathy amongst the participating students. She explained how her approach instilled confidence, enhanced cooperation and fostered problem solving skills. It also had a profoundly positive effect on the students who struggled most, by helping to create incentives to work hard and giving a sense of belonging at the school.  

Delegates quickly realized the significant impact her program had on students with special needs. You can imagine the shock the delegates felt when we were informed that the Prince Street School initiative had been stopped due to lack of policy.

As members of the Alliance for Urban Animals and on behalf of their close to 1800 like-minded colleagues across North America dedicated to creating healthy communities and positive experiences with companion animals, the OSPCA and PIJAC Canada decided to take action. 

In a letter to the Honourable J. Alan McIsaac, PEI Minster of Education and Early Childhood Development, we expressed our surprise at such a project having been put on hold. In our opinion, a project like this one fit perfectly under the Minister’s Directive on Special Education, which seems to guarantee the use of “alternative initiatives” such as this one in service to the province’s students with special needs.

We also noted that Ms. Higginbotham’s program should be a great source of pride and inspiration to his ministry, the government and the entire province. Having won a provincial award, regional and national recognition (runner up to Innovator of the Year award and designation of Urban Animal Mentor) and being the model for other similar programs in Nova Scotia reflects well on the province’s innovative ways. We invited the Minister to contact the Alliance for Urban Animals for assistance in addressing the concerns that may have been expressed on this program. 

The Alliance for Urban Animals needs to voice its support of projects like the one put together by Ms. Higginbotham, emphasizing the importance of such an approach in enhancing the quality of education for students with special needs. We believe that a positive pet experience is instrumental in improving the learning experience of these students.

We can only hope that a solution can be brought forward to re-instate this life altering educational curriculum and provide these exceptional students with the tools they need to learn and grow.

Congratulations to all 2014 Innovation Showcases. At the Urban Animal Foundation Dinner, October 23, Summit delegates selected four Innovation Mentors from the eight showcases invited to present at Summit 2014. 

• Tails of Help
• Shelter Medicine at College Boreal 
• Paws Fur Thought 
• Prince Street Puppy Project

These four Innovators will be awarded that Urban Animal Mentor status and have the opportunity to mentor those organizations seeking to replicate the Innovation in their local community. 

Two finalists were selected from these four Innovators. From them the Innovator of the Year will be revealed and celebrated during the Friday evening Summit Awards Gala, 24 October 2014. 

The Innovator of the Year finalists are... 

• Paws Fur Thought
• Tails of Help

Stay tuned tomorrow evening for results! Or follow us live on Twitter @PetUtility and #2014SUAS! 

Atlantic Innovation Showcase Spotlight The Prince Street Puppy Project

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

https://www.facebook.com/PrinceStreetPuppyProject?ref=hl

OR blog: princestreetpuppyproject.wordpress.com