Dogs Trust Shrewsbury offers free workshops to school children

Dogs Trust in Shrewsbury is offering local primary schools free workshops to help children understand dogs and “ensure they can live safely and happily at home.”

The ‘Be Dog Smart’ workshops, which cover what it takes to keep a dog happy and healthy, support a range of curriculum subjects and lessons that are tailored to suit the needs of the pupils.

The workshops cover aspects of how to live happily with a dog such as never approaching them whilst they are eating or sleeping and also how a child should approach a dog they don’t know when they are out and about. 

Alison Donald, education and community officer at Dogs Trust said: “Whilst being around dogs can have so many wonderful benefits for young people, the simple fact is that any dog can bite or snap if worried, scared or hurt.” 

She added: “Many of these bites are preventable and at Dogs Trust we believe educating children, as well as other family members, about dog safety, is the first step to preventing such incidents.

“In the workshops we teach the basics such as when not to approach a dog, how you can safely introduce yourself to a dog you don’t know and for children more nervous of dogs, how to feel more confident when around them.”