Special schools: Therapy dogs make "amazing" difference

Therapy dogs help the children with all aspects of learning and are helping to develop their communication skills

Sibling therapy dogs are helping to make an "amazing" difference in two Belfast special schools.

Labradoodles Mac and Millie are specially trained therapy dogs.

They help pupils at Fleming Fulton School and Harberton School with all aspects of their learning, and to develop their communication, motivation and social skills.

The two schools are next to each other so the furry siblings can keep in touch.

Both Mac and Millie were trained by Assistance Dogs Northern Ireland and have been working in the schools for a few months.

'Really positive influence'

The principal of Fleming Fulton, Karen Hancock, said that Mac had made an "amazing" difference to both pupils and staff in that time.

"The lovely thing is he is so non-judgemental," she told BBC News NI.

"He is Mac and everybody just adores him. He goes right across school, so he goes into therapy departments and helps children in therapy."

Mac spent his time in physiotherapy on Thursday.

"We have children who go up to physio who would be taken out of their wheelchairs," said Ms Hancock.

"Mac would lie beside them and he has a really positive influence on them because they chill, and just with Mac being so still beside them he just seems to be such a motivator."

"The other thing is that we have children who are practicing walking so I put a lead on him and they can walk him back to class.

"A child in a wheelchair can also take him for a walk and it is so motivating for the young people."

When BBC News NI visited Fleming Fulton, senior pupil Troy was doing just that - taking Mac for a walk along the school corridors.

Pupils also treat Mac like a celebrity when he passes their classroom, blowing him kisses and receiving a quick cuddle.

Just a few hundred yards away in Harberton Special School, Mac's sister Millie also spends five days of the school week hard at work.

Principal of Haberton School James Curran says dog Millie 'means something to every child in school'

'Reduces stresses and worries'

Harberton's principal James Curran said that Millie was especially helpful for pupils with autism, reducing their stresses and their worries.

"We have a high percentage of children with autism here in school," he said.

"We know the difficulties that some autistic children have with receptive language and understanding words when people are talking to them all the time.

"Millie doesn't talk so for them she's a quiet companion.

"With her being in the room and working with a child or with children with autism they don't feel any expectation from Millie and I think that takes the pressure off them.

"Getting them to talk to Millie, they're always really keen to say: 'Hello Millie' or 'Good Morning Millie' or 'Good Girl Millie,' that is something that Millie brings.

"Quite often they've no interest in speaking to me because I don't mean anything to them, but Millie seems to mean something to every child in our school."

P7 pupil Marley says Millie is 'very good dog'

That is certainly the case for P7 pupils Marley and Carlie.

"She's a very good dog and she's very fluffy," Marley told BBC News NI.

"Some people might have really bad anxiety and Millie's an anxiety dog so she's a good help," Carlie said.

And because there is only a short walk between the schools, brother and sister regularly meet up too.

"It's just lovely to think of a brother and sister from the same litter on the same campus a couple of hundred yards apart every day," James Curran said.

"We go for walks together and we go out and have that down time for the dogs."

Having begun working in the schools, Mac and Millie will now stay on the staff in each for a number of years.

Mac lives with Karen Hancock and Millie lives with James Curran so they travel to and from school with the principals every day.

"When Mac's at home or at school and isn't working he's an eight month old very lively pup who gets up to all sorts of mischief," according to Karen Hancock.

"But when he comes and gets that jacket on, he just transforms into the most amazing caring dog who has a sixth sense for our pupils."