Dogs Trust

The Dogs Trust Education Team have been delivering free educational workshops and assemblies across the UK since 2003. Educating children about responsible dog ownership and safety around dogs is an important part of what we do at Dogs Trust.
By helping young people learn about safe and appropriate behaviour around dogs, as well as the responsibilities and commitment involved in dog ownership, we believe we can improve the welfare of dogs, both in the homes of the children we teach, as well as dogs they may meet when out and about in the community.
Our dog-focussed programme aims to encourage compassionate attitudes in children that in turn lead to behaviours that are conducive with both dog welfare, as well as their own safety.
Our aim is to ensure all dogs can lead a happy, healthy life and encouraging and developing the required human behaviour to achieve this is of fundamental importance to the Dogs Trust mission.

Who we are:

The Dogs Trust Education Team is made up of 27 Education and Community Officers (ECOs) who deliver workshops and assemblies in schools across the UK, predominantly to KS2 primary school children, alongside secondary school children and families. Each member of the team is placed appropriately and assigned an area to cover, enabling our programme to be delivered throughout the whole of the UK.

In addition to our Be Dog Smart school education programme, our Taking the Lead programme, delivered by 8 Education and Outreach Officers (EOOs) targets learners within secure establishments and alternative education provisions.

What we do:

Every year we visit hundreds of schools and work with thousands of children encouraging and impacting positive attitudes towards canine welfare.

Our trained and experienced team are fully equipped to deliver engaging and interactive workshops which include our underpinning themes of Dog Safety and Responsible Dog Ownership.

Benefits for teachers:

· Pre-prepared workshops delivered by our qualified Education and Community Officers

· Links to the curriculum naturally embedded

· Workshops are inclusive and have activities that cater for a variety of learning needs and styles.

· Selection of topics on offer that embed our key themes and compliment your curriculum focus.

Benefits for pupils:

· Using dogs as a focus, our workshops and assemblies aim to develop compassion and consideration for all living beings.

· We deliver our workshops with a great deal of passion in creative and imaginative ways creating a memorable and positive learning experience.

· Children will learn how to stay safe around dogs as well as the commitment involved in owning a dog.

Our target audience is Key Stage 2 aged children, however, our Education and Community Officers will endeavour to deliver a workshop where possible to all year groups (booking conditions apply).

Workshops are delivered predominantly in schools; however, they can also be delivered to parent and child, antenatal groups, and youth groups in a community setting.

What we have achieved:

In 2019 the Education Team exceeded prior annual figures, delivering a record 9,084 workshops, reaching 422,151 learners within 3,141 schools across the UK.

Measurement and Evaluation:

We have completed a large-scale Randomised Control Trial (RCT) in the classroom to analyse the impact our intervention has on children's attitudes and intended behaviours around responsible dog ownership and dog safety.
This sampled over 4500 children, which we believe may make it the largest scale evaluation of an in-school animal welfare education programme ever conducted. Results indicate we are making a significant positive impact on children’s pro-welfare attitudes around dogs.
The average score of the group that had received a workshop was significantly higher than the group that hadn’t.

Anecdotally, our intervention receives praise from teachers, parents, children and professionals:

“We have had lots of positive feedback related to your workshops from staff and parents and children, so thank you again! We have put your big posters outside the school gates now and the children are confidently talking about dog safety. Thank you!”

"Your family session was very good, informative, interesting and fun."

"The children have been talking a lot about staying dog smart - they have taken it all in. Thanks to great hands on teaching!"

"I just wanted to pass on my thanks to you, for the workshops you delivered to our KS2 children. The activities you delivered were very age appropriate and you had an excellent rapport with the children, who were buzzing from the experience."

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Dogs Trust Education Programme

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