Children, Dogs and Education: Caring for, Learning Alongside, and Gaining Support from Canine Companions

By Mary Renck Jalongo

This book brings together authoritative information about the child/dog bond as it is manifested with family dogs, visiting therapy dogs, and service dogs trained to assist children with disabilities. Despite the widely accepted view that participating in a dog’s care and interacting with dogs in behaviorally healthy ways is a route to becoming responsible and compassionate, research on this complex dynamic is difficult to design, time-consuming to collect, and challenging to analyze. This volume synthesizes theory, research, and practice, bringing all to bear upon child/dog interactions in homes, schools, libraries, and the community at large. Children, Dogs and Education serves as a handbook for a diverse group of adults who seek to build positive relationships between children and dogs—parents/families, professional dog trainers, teachers, librarians, mental health professionals, health care professionals, and university faculty.

The study of interactions between human and nonhuman animals has captured the imagination of an international community of researchers from many different fields and professions. Even though dogs are ubiquitous in the lives of most children, studies of children’s interactions with dogs in families and communities are lacking. Most of the previous research on the human-canine bond has focused on adolescents and adults or, even when younger children are the focus, it has tended to rely on parents to speak for children. There are three features of this book that make it unique. First, it goes beyond exploring the child/dog bond to examine additional important issues, including:  children’s concepts of responsible care, their ability to interpret dogs’ behavioral cues, and their ideas about canine behavioral issues/training. Second, unlike most other work to date, it represents children’s voices through cases, interviews, and drawings. Finally, the contributors to this edited work use their collective wisdom to draw educational implications and suggest direction in preparing the next generation of dog guardians. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Springer
• Release date: May 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9783319778457

Book preview

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

Mary Renck Jalongo (ed.)Children, Dogs and Educationhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77845-7_1

1. Introduction: Children and the Dogs in Their Lives

Mary Renck Jalongo¹  

(1)

Editor, Early Childhood Education Journal, Indiana, PA, USA

Mary Renck Jalongo

Email: [e-mail]

Keywords

Human-animal interaction (HAI)Child-dog bondFamily dogAnimal-assisted activitiesAnimal-assisted educationAnimal-assisted therapy

Introduction

How many dogs are there in the world? That question is difficult to answer because estimates frequently are based on owned or registered dogs. Nonetheless, the total number of dogs on the planet is approximately 525 million (Coren 2012b). China is home to about 110 million dogs, Africa about 78 million owned dogs (and another 70 million unowned dogs), France about 8.8 million and Japan—a country with most dogs of their dogs registered—is at 9.5 million (Coren 2012b). The latest statistics from the American Pet Products Association’s (2017) pet owners’ survey report that there are 60.2 million households that include at least one dog and a total of 89.7 million owned dogs in the United States alone. Attitudes toward dogs range widely as well, with some dogs viewed as filthy curs that warrant extermination, others treated as full-fledged family members whose passing will be commemorated by a funeral—and all points in between on the continuum.

Ubiquity has a way of making the significant seem mundane and beneath consideration as the subject of serious study. In embarking upon a book project about children and dogs we knew that the general public might view our findings as obvious while researchers would require more evidence. That is the way it is with complex, dynamic processes that we find ourselves immersed in—they simultaneously underwhelm common sense and challenge the scientific method. The general public says, in effect, everybody knows that and the researchers say, in effect, nobody really knows that. So it is with one specific category of human-animal interaction: that between children and dogs.

While imagining this book and the direction it might take, I had an opportunity to observe some spontaneous interactions between children and their dogs:

One afternoon in August, shortly after the new school year had begun, several cars stopped periodically as they followed a school bus that was dropping elementary students off near their homes. Adults waited at the bus stop for the children to arrive. Many adults were accompanied by the family dog. Of all the end-of-school-day reunions, the ones with the dog were the most joyful. The dogs did not just stand there, they eagerly anticipated the arrival of the big yellow bus. Young dogs were unable to contain their enthusiasm; they twirled and leapt with excitement well before the bus appeared. Mature dogs and white faced seniors were more controlled but they too wagged and wiggled. The children responded in kind. The instant they disembarked from the bus, several tossed their backpacks aside to interact with the dog first. Some knelt down to give a hug. Other children patted the dogs’ heads, rubbed their ears, or knelt down to rub the dog’s belly. Still other children immediately started to play, running alongside their canine companions as they headed home.

This brief glimpse of everyday experiences with family dogs in a rural community illustrates some of the characteristics of dogs that make them appealing to so many children. Dogs never tire of the welcome home ritual; it is as if each happy reunion is experienced anew. They watch and listen but do not find fault, as people often do. Dogs operate in the world of here and now instead of regretting events in the past or worrying about the future. The great majority of dogs—even those neglected or abused—still welcome gentle touch, seek human company, give of their time, and reciprocate with affection. Dogs are indifferent to characteristics that humans use to divide, dismiss, and disregard people. Income, social class, and disability are immaterial to them. In their review of the research literature, Fine and Beck (2015) conclude that children’s bonds with companion animals can offer companionship, uplift mood, stimulate conversation, provide physical contact and tactile stimulation, make a connection with the natural world, mitigate stress and anxiety, counteract loneliness, and encourage physical activity. Although there is considerable variation in prevailing attitudes toward dogs in different contexts, cultures, and countries (Herzog 2011; Jegatheesan 2015), the diverse membership of groups, such as the International Guide Dog Federation, demonstrate that people throughout the world recognize how dogs can improve the quality of human life. There is also a growing appreciation that the impact of animals on people is an important domain of human activity…that merits theoretical and empirical attention (Amiot and Bastian 2015, p. 6). The majority of the published research on human-animal interaction comes from the United States, Australia, and European countries with fewer studies from Asia and Africa (Hart and Yamamoto 2015) yet there is groundswell of interest from mainstream psychological, educational, and medical researchers and practitioners about ways to include animals—most frequently, dogs—into their practice (Coren 2015, p. xix).

Among all the possible companion animals, dogs are apparently preferred, both as parents’ choice for a child and as a wished for pet by children (Gray and Young 2011). The sheer diversity of forms that a dog can take, from a poodle so tiny it fits into a teacup to a St. Bernard with a body weight exceeding that of many adult humans, make the dog the most diverse of any species (Irion et al., 2003). Even within the broader context of human-animal interaction literature about children, dogs stand out: The human–companion animal literature finds that children overwhelmingly consider their pets to be friends and family members and accord their pets, and certainly their dogs, status as biological creatures with minds, emotions, and moral claims (Melson et al. 2009, p. 556).

Yet when we look at the human-animal interaction research, the uniqueness of dogs often is obscured by studying every possible type of companion animal. To illustrate, in a national survey conducted by the American Veterinary Medical Association (2012), people were asked if they considered their pets—of any type—to be a part of the family and 63.2% said that they did. However, when the Pew Research Center surveyed 3,014 adults and asked about dogs exclusively, the ratings were much higher. Not only did 85% of adult respondents consider dogs to be members of the family, 94% reported that they felt closer to their dog than to some human family members (Taylor et al. 2006). Thus, for many people throughout the world, dogs are unique amongst possible companion animals (Miklosi 2016). For some, a beloved dog is far more than a pet or even a friend; rather, they are special category of kin who merit special care and safeguarding (Fine 2014; Van der Merwe et al. 2017). Prevailing attitudes about dogs have changed dramatically since Renee Descartes proclaimed that animals were more like machines and did not feel pain or have emotions (Panaman 2008). Today, not only a recognition of dogs’ suffering but also of their emotional lives is more the norm (Safina 2015). Many people go beyond acknowledging dog’s emotional lives and anthropomorphize them in an attempt to interpret canine behavior (Martens et al. 2016). Further evidence of viewing dogs as kin is that, when wills are executed or marriages dissolve, the fate of dogs can become a contentious issue—so much so that it has become part of lawyers’ training in the U.S. Yet another indicator that dogs are being regarded as more than pets is that many people will risk personal safety during a disaster rather than leave their pets behind (Trigg et al. 2016). Evidently, women in abusive and violent homes also override concerns for personal safety to protect their animals—usually dogs (National Resource Center on Domestic Violence and Animal Welfare Institute (2014). Studies have found that 20–48% of women refuse to leave an abuser because they fear for a pet’s safety and between 48–71% of battered women have pets that also have been abused or killed (Ascione et al. 2007; Carlisle-Frank et al. 2004). As of 2016, 32 states in the USA now include dogs in court-issued orders of protection, commonly referred to as restraining orders (Wisch 2016). Ways of commemorating dogs after they die—obituaries, funerals, cemeteries, or ashes in urns—all speak to the importance of canines in the lives of many individuals (Veldkamp 2009). As important as dogs can apparently be to adults, they may be even more so for children who form a bond with a dog.

Many children, when asked to draw a picture of their families, will include the family dog. Dogs figure even more prominently in children’s lives than many adults may realize. When children were asked to identify who is most significant in their lives and to list the sources of their well-being, they ranked pets—usually dogs—considerably higher than expected by their parents or teachers (Bryant 1985; Sixsmith, Gabhainn, Fleming and O’Higgings 2007; Tipper 2011). When asked to list the ten most important individuals in their lives, 7- and 10-year-old children included two pets (usually dogs) in their list, and 42% of 5-year-old children spontaneously mentioned turning to their pets when they are feeling sad, angry, happy, or want to share a secret (Foer 2006). Children also view a dog’s mind differently from adults; they attribute less to instinct and more to intention (Hawkins and Williams 2016).

Evidently, it is not only the family dog, but also unfamiliar, well-mannered dogs that children gravitate towards. Melson and Fogel (1996) found that, within five minutes of a interacting with an unfamiliar dog, 76% of the 7- to 15-year-old children they studied believed that a dog knew how they felt; another 84% indicated they would confide secrets to a dog. Dogs are unique among the possible companion animals and especially so for children. That is why our book focuses specifically on dogs rather than examining all possible companion animals.

A second distinguishing feature of this book is that we decided to study children between the ages of 4 and 14 when most of the human-animal interaction research focuses on individuals age 14 or older. Even when childhood experiences are ostensibly the focus of a study, it is sometimes parents/families who supply data for and about the child or the study is retrospective and asks adults to recall their experiences from childhood (Anderson 2007). In preparation for writing this book, a group of us conducted an exploratory study. We conducted interviews with 51 children between the ages of 4 and 14 while their parents completed a survey about dogs. Our goal was to explore a variety of topics and to include the voices of children throughout the book. The interviews with children covered a wide range of questions about dogs so, rather than putting all of that data into one chapter, we decided to describe the details of the study in the Appendix to the book and include the findings from portions of the interview and the survey into the most relevant chapters.

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Dogs can serve as companions during a wide variety of childhood activities.

Photo credit Megan Higgins

Goals for the Book

The purpose of this book is to examine, from multiple perspectives, the unique bonds that children form (or fail to form), not with any and all possible species, but specifically with canines. Our thesis is that, once formed, the child-dog bond is a unique type of attachment. Although recognition of the bond between humans and dogs has existed for centuries and instances of it today are everywhere (Serpell 2017), serious scientific study of the child/dog bond lags far behind the widely held opinion that loving care of and interactions with a good dog can exert a positive influence on a child’s life. We are just beginning to delve into the capacity of dogs to motivate children to learn, calm them when experiencing stress and anxiety, and aid them in connecting with others (Hart and Yamamoto 2015). There are major gaps in understanding such things as children’s interest in and knowledge about dogs, concepts of responsible care for dogs, ability to interpret canine behavioral cues, perceptions of training issues with dogs, and interactions with dogs other than their own family’s canine.

The group of authors and experts on various aspects of the child-dog bond assembled for this book have not only conducted research but also have amassed extensive experience with a wide range of interventions and support services for children and families in which dogs play a central role. Contributors to this edited work draw upon not only the published research but also upon their practical work experience and community service activities involving children and dogs to offer a deeper and wider understanding of the child-dog bond. We sought to integrate a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and international body of research literature, contribute to the research literature on children and dogs, and synthesize the two as a route to evidence-based recommendations for families, educators, and professionals. The authors represented here are persuaded that dogs matter to children, not out of sentimentality, but based on a growing body of empirical evidence that investigates the ways in which children, dogs, and education intersect.

Why This Book at This Time?

There are several reasons for producing a book that focuses on children and dogs only.

1.

Children’s bonds with dogs are simultaneously ubiquitous and unique.

In August, a six year old girl and her mother attend a local fair and stop at the booth of the local animal shelter. There are four volunteers there, each with one dog available for adoption on a leash. A frisky, gentle, affectionate 9-month-old beagle/basset hound mix named Roxie captivates this young girl and she cannot stop talking about the pup afterwards. The next day, the mother and her daughter visit the shelter. They ask the attendant to bring Roxie out in the fenced-in area to play and the girl says, She remembers me! as the pup wags her tail and licks her hand. I have a surprise for you, the mother says, Roxie is your dog now and we are taking her home today. With that, the child bursts into happy tears. A few days later, the mom sends a message to the shelter’s Facebook page that reads:We love Roxie already. Thank you for making this one of the happiest days of my daughter’s life.

Currently, in the U.S. alone, families own approximately 70 million pet dogs, with most considering their animal companions to be valued members of the family (American Veterinary Medical Association 2012). As Chap. 2 elaborates, when children connect emotionally with a dog, it results in a specific type of attachment. For many children, canine companions are a constant presence. As to being there despite disagreements and no matter what, children rate their dogs even higher than parents, siblings or friends (Melson 2001). Quantifiable aspects, such as the number of hours per day children spend in the company of a family dog, often exceed the number of hours spent with working parents (Melson 2001). The duration of the relationship may be longer as well. A dog acquired as a puppy could live for 12 years old or more, so in some instances, the relationship with the dog might span more years than a relationship with a divorced parent who makes little effort to maintain contact.

Children also seek out dogs when they are sad or upset. In studies conducted in Germany and the U.S. respectively, 79% of 4th graders (Rost and Hartmann 1994) and 75% of 10–14 year olds (Covert, Whirren, Keith and Nelson 1985) indicated that they turned to pets—particularly dogs—for emotional support. Likewise, Strand (2004) concluded that children sought out their pets for solace during parental disputes. Thus, both in terms of the number of hours per week and the nature of the relationship, a beloved family dog can surpass human family members’ availability to children as a confidante, listener, play partner, or roommate. Whether it is a child’s guide dog for the blind with three years of training, a best in show at Westminster who is also a family dog, or a stray adopted from the animal shelter, a dog’s importance to the child is measured by the strength of the reciprocal bond that is formed. Although adults may have widely divergent views on any given dog’s purpose and estimations of its worth, no price can be set on a dog dearly loved by a child. Figure 1.1 contains several Head Start students’ drawings and the captions that they dictated about their dogs.

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Fig. 1.1

Preschool Children’s Drawings and Dictated Captions about Family Dogs

2.

Experiences involving dogs influence development across domains.

Grandparents arrive at the animal shelter with their four-year-old grandson and stop at the front desk to speak with the receptionist. They encourage him to tell her why he is there and he says, I want to help the kitties and puppies. He has earned $9.00 from doing chores—mostly, washing dishes—and he proudly donates it all, signing the donation form with a scribble. He really wants to pet a puppy but, unfortunately, there aren’t any. The next moment, a van pulls into the driveway with seven dogs transferred from an overcrowded shelter. A volunteer appears in the doorway with a little black Lab mix puppy in her arms. When she hears the story, she reminds the preschooler to be very gentle and then places the puppy on the floor of the lobby to grant the child’s wish. A volunteer photographer is on the scene and, with the grandparents’ permission, she takes the child’s photograph and publishes it on the organization’s Facebook page. The boy’s grandmother says, Your picture is going to be on your iPad tonight and the child says, Really? After the story goes online, hundreds of people like or love the post; dozens of people take the time to write comments, such as Great work, buddy and The dogs and cats will get some special treats and toys because of you.

As this situation illustrates, dogs represent opportunities to learn across developmental domains. Through this experience, a preschooler learned about community service, gained insight into the work of an animal shelter, practiced his communication skills, built a sense of self-efficacy, and acted on his compassion for animals. Increasingly, dogs are being used motivate children to learn (Gee, Fine and McCardle 2017), provide emotional support (Casciotti and Zuckerman 2016), and mitigate physical and psychological disabilities (Stefanini, Martino, Bacci and Tani 2016). Caring for and about dogs can exert a positive influence on children across developmental domains: cognitive, physical, socio-emotional, and psychological. From a cognitive development standpoint, dogs are being used to motivate students to complete academic tasks (Gee, Fine and McCardle 2017). For example, when the curriculum required middle school students to learn how to write persuasively, a teacher made this assignment more engaging by having students write pet adoption literature to help the local shelter (Xavier and Reismann 2016). In the physical domain, while there is extensive research on dogs’ effects on adults’ health (Fine and Beck 2015; Schreiner 2016), research on connections between dogs and children’s physical well-being is more recent. Today, experts on children’s physical development recognize that playing and walking with dogs is an important way to increase children’s vigorous physical activity and address the issue of childhood obesity (Christian et al. 2016). In terms of emotional development, there is a growing trend toward using dogs as a form of psychological support for children with Autism spectrum disorders (Smith and Dale 2016), during interviews with or testimony from child victims of abuse (Signal, Taylor, Prentice, McDade and Burke 2016), and following a traumatic event (Mims and Waddell 2016). Activities involving dogs also are used to develop empathy in children (Sprinkle 2008) and promote the goals of humane education (Daly and Suggs 2010; Jalongo 2013; Poresky and Hendrix 1990).

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This shelter dog was being adopted by a boy’s grandmother. The child said, "I know he’s real scared so I can’t treat him like my dog. I have to be more quiet."

Photo credit Mary Renck Jalongo

For example, many children in the U.S. are foregoing the traditional birthday party and gifts in favor of collecting donations for homeless animals that they then donate to the shelter (see Chap. 4).

3.

Roles for dogs in promoting children’s safety and well-being are expanding

The parents of a 10 year old girl on the autism spectrum read about a service dog training program at the prison in the local newspaper. A group of carefully selected inmates complete four courses and are coached in the skill set of a professional service dog trainer. They work with the dog over the course of a year and it then goes to another trainer for a second year. The parents contact the woman who designed the curriculum for the inmates about acquiring a service dog for their daughter. She loves dogs and treats them kindly. The major safety concern with their child is her habit of getting out of bed during the night. In one terrifying incident, she succeeded in going outside as the parents slept and was found wandering around the neighborhood. What could a service dog do to help, they wonder? Is it true that a dog can be trained to alert the parents by barking if the child gets up, to block her exit from the door or herd her back from the property line? The director of the service dog program confirms that this is true but the wait list is long, the dogs are expensive, and individual training with the dog and family is required. The family is determined to move forward and gets a call indicating that the dog trainers think they have found the right dog. After the dog is established in the home, the mother says, We slept through the night for the first time in years. My daughter adores the dog.

As this example illustrates, a dog’s tendency to view people as part of the pack can be the basis for many different ways of helping children (Bradshaw 2011). Behaviors once dismissed as anecdotal or attributable to the anthropomorphic imaginings of dog enthusiasts are now being tested in laboratory settings and gaining support from research across the disciplines. To illustrate, most people are aware that dogs have an exceptionally keen sense of smell. Experts say that their ability to smell is at least 10,000 times better than a human being’s (Tyson 2012). Dog also smell differently; whereas both human breathing and smelling go through the same nasal cavity, a dog’s breathing and smelling cavities are separate. Dogs are capable of making fine distinctions in odors and it is estimated that they have 40 times as many olfactory receptors as humans (Coren and Hodgson 2018). As Horowitz (2010) explained, where humans smell stew, a dog detects separate smells of the beef, carrots, and onions. Dogs also can detect smells that are extremely diluted to parts per trillion and amounts of explosives as tiny as a grain of sand. Skilled scent tracking dogs can follow a human vapor trail—the distinctive smell of a person—hours, days, and weeks later. Search and rescue dogs can locate lost or abducted children, help to apprehend adults who commit crimes against children, or find children in the rubble of a natural disaster (Jones, Dashfield, Downend and Otto 2004). Dogs’ sense of smell has also been used to help exploited and sexually abused children. For example, a dog specifically trained to locate computer storage devices by smell has found the evidence necessary to convict criminals involved in child pornography cases. Other ways that dogs keep children safe include detecting explosives, locating underground gas leaks, and finding insect pests of various types. With training, the dog’s incredible sense of smell also can be used to anticipate and alert to dangerously high or low blood sugar levels in children with diabetes or to alert to substances that would cause an allergic reaction in a child, such as peanuts. Specially trained dogs also can identify the presence of some cancers earlier, with fewer false positives, and with less invasive, smaller tissue samples than other medical tests—yet another way of promoting well-being (InSitu Foundation 2017).

4.

Dogs can support the goals of inclusion

The local therapy dog group visits a group of high school students who are in the Life Skills class. These students have mental challenges that prevent them from completing the general curriculum for high school students. During reading class, they are visited by four dogs and they sit with the dogs while they practice reading aloud with materials selected by the teacher to match their reading levels. One of the dogs is a big yellow Labrador retriever that weighs almost 100 lb. The children know his back story—he was tied outside to a dog house until his owner/handler rescued him. This dog happens to be obsessed with tennis balls and will attempt to stuff as many as possible into his mouth while playing. When a child whose walker has tennis balls on all four of the feet moves toward him, the dog gets really excited and starts to jump around, bark, and go into play posture. The children know that the visiting dogs are supposed to be calm and quiet, so they find his misbehavior very amusing. They also figure out what prompted the dog’s outburst and it sparks a lively conversation.

Boris Levinson (1997), the psychologist widely regarded as the originator of incorporating dogs into clinical practice, described the dog’s role as that of a social lubricant. He observed that his clients were more willing to talk when his dog accompanied him to sessions and that they sometimes would speak or whisper to the dog, saying things that they did not feel comfortable saying to him. At the time, criticism was heaped onto Levinson, with psychologists and the media opining that he had gone to the dogs. Today, there is empirical evidence to support Levinson’s ideas (Bachi and Parrish-Plass 2016). Dogs truly are catalysts for social interaction (McNicholas and Collis 2000) and this can facilitate the goal of inclusion. Numerous studies have documented that people are more likely to approach a person who has a disability and interact with that person in more positive ways when he or she is accompanied by an assistance dog (Esteves and Stokes 2008; Mader et al. 1989). In studies that collect self-report data, people with disabilities who acquire service dogs usually credit the dog with improving their social interaction, facilitating friendships, and expanding their social network (see Chap. 11). Professionals in many fields have been so favorably impressed by the difference that service dogs can make in children’s lives that they are now recommending assistance dogs to patients and clients (Audrestch et al. 2015). The types of assistance dogs continue to expand as researchers and practitioners collaborate to help children who are deaf, have mobility issues, seizure disorders, and other challenges. Assistance dogs also increase the independence of people with special needs by performing utilitarian tasks such retrieving dropped objects, opening doors, operating light switches, or helping with self-care routines, such as getting dressed. Added to this impressive history is the service dog’s newest role: helping children with psychiatric issues (Maujean, Pepping and Kendall, 2015). Today, dogs are being trained to be an emotional support system for children on the autism spectrum and with post-traumatic stress disorder or other medically diagnosed psychological challenges.

5.

Visiting dog programs are providing more opportunities for child/dog interaction

Janine Petro, a professional counselor, has incorporated her dogs into her practice. She shared the following account of how the presence of the dogs encouraged participation in a family grief support program and provided much needed support to a boy whose mother had died:

One preteen boy was reluctant to enroll in the program until he heard that a therapy dog named Ruby would be there. That first night and at every meeting thereafter, he sought her out. The boy observed Ruby closely, providing commentary on how she was perhaps feeling or responding to others and often asked her owner questions about the dog. Although the boy sometimes felt awkward in communicating with his peers during small group, he could communicate beautifully with Ruby. The preteen proudly demonstrated to his father that Ruby would perform the common commands at his request and these interactions, in particular, seemed to give this boy a welcomed opportunity to exert some control within his environment. At the end of each family session night, he sought out the dog to bestow upon her his goodnight pets and words. It was difficult to speak about his mother but the trust he established with his counselor and her therapy dog Ruby gave him the support he needed to share his story. Sadly, during the same year, this child experienced the unexpected death of his beloved cat. Ruby the therapy dog was the first to hear that hurt expressed in words. Then Ruby experienced some health issues and Roxie, her younger half-sister, stepped in. This transition represented a little grief journey for the youth who was so bonded to the first therapy dog. Now a teenager, this young man is in his fourth year with the program he originally did not want to join. He has matured into a more effective and compassionate communicator with his peers. He appears to need his therapy dog time less than in previous years but welcomes interaction with either of the dogs who participate.

There are many reasons why a child who wants a dog is not permitted to have one. Parent work schedules, housing regulations, allergies or phobias in other family members, and financial constraints are just a few of the obstacles. Particularly for children who cannot have a family dog, interacting with dogs owned by others in schools, libraries, and mental or physical health care settings is a welcomed opportunity (McCardle, McCune, Griffin, Esposito and Freund 2010).

Medical research testing various indicators of stress, such as galvanic skin response, elevated blood pressure or heart rate, and elevated levels of cortisol (the hormone associated with stress) have documented that the presence of a mellow dog can reduce the stress responses (Freund, McCune, Esposito, Gee and McCardle 2016; Omert 2013; Tsai, Friedmann and Thomas 2010). When children encounter different anxiety-producing situations, registered and insured dogs with adult handlers, referred to as therapy dogs, can provide comfort and calm. Therapy dogs are now being used to support children during court testimony, to reduce anxiety associated with reading aloud, to visit chronically ill children in hospitals or hospice, to encourage children in physical therapy to follow a treatment plan, to interact with children housed in a shelter after a natural disaster, and to accompany children during medical exams and procedures (see Chap. 9). Evidently, even these short-term interactions can elevate positive mood in many children (Melson and Fine 2015).

Most pertinent to the education focus of this book, there is a growing body of research evidence to suggest that trained, health checked, registered and insured dogs accompanied by their volunteer handlers can be incorporated into educational programs and make them more effective (Gee, Fine and McCardle 2017). Animals can serve as powerful motivators because they tend to generate interest, increase student engagement, and encourage children to practice skills. Dogs also make the learning experience more memorable because the learning occurs in the context of meaningful relationships (Endenburg and Van Lith 2011). These outcomes may be particularly important for children who often struggle with learning tasks (e.g., Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) because interactions with therapy dogs can increase attention and focus; increase playfulness and positive mood; decrease distractibility, hyperactivity and impulsivity; improve ability to tolerate frustration and complete a task; teach sequencing, organization and prioritization of goals; aid when making transitions; and stabilize emotions through a calm and nonjudgmental presence (Kaufmann, Beetz, Kinoshita, and Ross 2015). Incorporating dogs as part of a classroom intervention is gaining acceptance and progress has been made in the research in recent years; nevertheless more rigorous empirical studies are needed (Brelsford, Meints, Gee and Pfeffer 2017).

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Children often are attracted to and eager to interact with dogs and puppies.

Photo Credit Melissa Peyton

Conclusion

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Dogs are an integral part of many children’s lives. This whippet rides along each day when his owner goes to school.

Photo Credit Laurie Bennett

Roles for dogs have increased exponentially in recent years. Some roles, such as the loyal family dog, are long-standing. Others, such as search and rescue dogs for lost and missing children, have expanded. Still others are emerging, such as dogs that provide psychological support. Research that studies children and animals both in natural environments and laboratory settings has contributed to a deeper and wider understanding of the many ways that human-animal interaction can exert a positive influence on children’s cognitive, emotional, social, and physical development (Endenburg and van Lith 2011; McCardle, McCune, Griffin and Maholmes 2011). In a literature review from the National Center for Health Research, the authors concluded, The better we understand the human-animal bond, the more we can use it to improve people’s lives (Casciotti and Zuckerman 2016, p. 1). This book is about the myriad ways that one particular type of animal and bond—the one between children and dogs–can complement the work of educators and other professionals who are dedicated to supporting children’s well-being.

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