How do you teach children to deal with dogs? Well very simple, you get a dog in the classroom. This is what is going to happen on Thursday at the primary school ‘Tweelingen’.
Mr.Hans Bokhoven from the Sophie dog training school, will visit the primary school with his Labrador Norah, as part of the ‘Sophia SnuffleCollege’ ( ‘Sophia SniffLecture’) school project. This project aims to eliminate the fear of dogs in the children and to prevent dog bites.
According to Miss Ricky van Schendel, teacher of group 4, the children of her class are very frightened when the dog barks, and this happens very regularly when she walks with her group to the gym. She is very concerned of the effect of barking dogs on the children.
In the Netherlands 150,000 biting incidents take place every year, especially with young children . International research has shown that the risk of a dog biting can be reduced by 86 %, if children are able to interpret the dogs behavior correctly.
Van Bokhoven teaches the children in three lessons to understand the body language of dogs and to react in the right way.
Source: www.studio040.nl
Translation: Usha Shankar
