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The National Dog Safe Strategy™

Delta Dog Safe™ is a pro-active, dog friendly school education program for 5 to 7 year old children, their parents and local communities. Designed by Delta Australia as a public health initiative it teaches safe and sensible behaviour around dogs, both family pets and stray or street dogs. Delta Dog Safe™ programs are currently conducted in Tasmania and South Australia.

Delta Dog Safe™ Tasmania, established as a committee of the Delta Board, is coordinated by Anne Boxhall BA, Dip Ed, a primary school teacher with over twenty years classroom experience. The Tasmanian program, established originally with a two year grant from the Telstra Foundation, is now funded by the Tasmanian Government. By December 2006 it had been presented to more than 22,000 children, almost 100% of the target 'audience' of 5 to 7 year old Tasmanians.

Delta Dog Safe™ South Australia is conducted with the support of the SA Government through the Dog & Cat Management Board of South Australia. The program will have been presented to almost 100% of South Australian junior primary school children by the end of the 2007 school year.

What is Delta Dog Safe™ ?

The Program promotes practical, proactive and dog-friendly ways in which volunteers, animal control officers, veterinarians, vet nurses, health professionals and educators can work with school communities to educate children and their parents about safe and sensible behaviour around dogs, both the family pet and the stray or street dog.

It is estimated that each year dogs bite more than 100,000 Australians with varying degrees of severity. Most bites occur because neither adults nor children have been educated about appropriate behaviour around dogs or how to read  dogs’ body language.

Approximately 16,000 seek treatment in the Accident & Emergency Departments of the nation's public hospitals. In the financial year 2001-2002 more than 2,300 had injuries severe enough to warrant hospitalisation and reconstructive surgery (1).

Two out of every three bites involve the family, neighbour or friend's pet dog 'in the backyard' and almost 50% of all serious bites occurring in children under ten years of age.

Delta Dog Safe™ is a public health program aimed specifically at reducing the incidence of dog bites in young children.

Early in 1999, the Society contracted an education consultant, Lynne Sung, to develop a teacher resource kit for use in conjunction with classroom presentations to junior primary school children about safe and protective behaviour around dogs - the family dog, friends' dogs and stray or street dogs. The next step was to commission the development of a comprehensive strategy, including a training seminar for class room presenters, by Dr Joanne Righetti and Delta accredited dog trainers. This package was reviewed by Dr Kersti Seksel. (A second edition has since been produced by Anne Boxhall). The Society then commissioned a randomised, controlled trial, designed and supervised by Professor Simon Chapman, to test the methodology in eight junior primary schools in suburban Sydney. The results of the trial, published in the British Medical Journal on 3rd June 2000, showed a significant modification in risk taking behaviour (2).

The research indicates that junior primary school children can be successfully taught how to behave safely around dogs, provided there is teacher commitment to the program and teachers are provided with resources and reference material for use before and after classroom presentations. At the same time, it is essential that parents - the childrens' role models - are also educated about safe behaviour around dogs.

Our classroom experience has also provided evidence that the use of a large 'model' dog for Dog Safe presentations produces results which are very similar, if not identical, to those produced using live dogs. This is based on classroom behaviour during presentations and subsequent recall, having obvious implications for safety and productivity. Indeed, management of individual children who may be 'acting up' during a presentation is much easier if the presenter is using a 'model' dog. A further consideration is that toy 'model' dogs are not subject to either heat or physical stress and have very placid temperaments!

The Dog Safe™ package consists of a disk containing the training seminar notes (the seminar is presented by Dr Joanne Righetti), a teacher resource kit and a lesson plan for presenters, a separate disk containing a PowerPoint presentation for schools and a 'starter kit' of 2,000 parent brochures.

Delta accredited presenters are asked to sign a simple agreement with Delta in which they undertake to use their best efforts to present the program to all the pre-school and junior primary school children in a defined area (council boundary, Health or Education region, veterinary practice outreach etc) and to submit quarterly activity statistics to Delta's national office. In return they are supported by Delta and covered by the Society's public risk and professional indemnity policies.

For further information contact Delta's Chief Executive Officer, Shop 2, 50 Carlton Crescent SUMMER HILL  NSW  2130.

Phone: (02) 9797 7922

Email: hollee@deltasocietyaustralia.com.au

 

References:

1. Preventing dog bites in children: Simon Chapman, John Cornwall, Joanne Righetti & Lynne Sung BMJ 2000. 320:1512-1513

2. Australian Institute of Health & Welfare. Dog Bite statistics, inpatient admissions 2001-2002.