{"id":342904,"date":"2026-03-23T00:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T00:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/342904\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T00:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T00:02:18","slug":"school-support-dogs-helping-anxious-students-cope-and-learn-in-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/342904\/","title":{"rendered":"School support dogs helping anxious students cope and learn in class"},"content":{"rendered":"

She said: \u201cA lot of kids feel really judged today, and I think dogs just provide that non-judgemental, unconditional love and support that maybe they don\u2019t feel that they\u2019re getting from their human peers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"18-week-old18-week-old Goose is working in two Christchurch high schools’ sick bays and counselling areas once a week. Photo \/ Shirley Boys’ High School<\/p>\n

Goose is the schools\u2019 second dog, carrying on the legacy of biological sibling Maverick. <\/p>\n

Cooper said Maverick \u201cstarted going to school through the initiative of a student, who saw him there one day she just thought \u2018this dog looks so cool\u2019 and so she actually went through a whole process of getting him approved to be a school dog\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said Maverick was there for two years and made a huge impact. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had students who were unwell with stress-related<\/a> panic attacks, and seizures and things like that, and he would be included in their plans as treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper said they\u2019re hoping Goose will have the same sort of traits and will detect when students are sad or in need of a bit of love and comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds that \u201cshe\u2019s been very, very confident and very chill and has enjoyed the interactions that she\u2019s had with some anxious kids\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mobility Dogs NZ has also recently begun expanding its services to schools and is seeing more schools<\/a> reach out to use them.<\/p>\n

General manager Jody Wilson said dogs <\/a>like Goose are part of a growing trend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dog acts as a calming influence and they can, sometimes they will actually talk to the dog rather than talk to the person that\u2019s asking the questions because it allows them a greater sense of, just that calming influence of being able to articulate themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that dogs can also help with reading and academic support.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes if a child is struggling to learn to read, they may have a dog sitting beside them that they could … read to the dog actually, that sometimes happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson said the dogs provide a range of services. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt depends on the school. It depends on the type of school. It depends what age group they\u2019re working with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson said feedback from schools had been overwhelmingly positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the schools that we\u2019ve placed the dogs with so far, the feedback is only positive \u2026 It\u2019s positive across the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love to see dogs in all schools, but, we\u2019ve got to also be mindful that there are children that might not want a dog around, we\u2019ve got to be careful about these placements and work our way through the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaime Cunningham is a Christchurch-based reporter with a focus on education, social issues and general news. She joined Newstalk ZB in 2023 after working as a sports reporter at the Christchurch Star.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She said: \u201cA lot of kids feel really judged today, and I think dogs just provide that non-judgemental,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,3404,4607,12781,73222,9213,1872,134,30538,78,51928,12027,11285,1885,111,43,139,69,801,4062,6649,3767,1886,3382],"class_list":["post-342904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-anxiety","tag-anxious","tag-class","tag-cope","tag-dogs","tag-face","tag-health","tag-helping","tag-in","tag-increasingly","tag-learn","tag-learning","tag-mental","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rising","tag-school","tag-schools","tag-students","tag-support","tag-using"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}