Frances - the HOPE Dog 

Fran is working hard to learn as much as she can. She attends school 5 days a week, usually arriving a little after 8:00am.  She has spent most of her day in the Admin area up until now but has helped support students and staff throughout the day.

She sleeps a lot of the time as she is still a puppy. She has a resting crate in the Assistant Principal’s office area but sometimes she just conks out and sleeps anywhere. We have recently added a crate to the General Office and an enclosure to the Wellbeing lounge.  She will frequent these areas in the weeks to come.  She attended the College’s Cross Country event and loved the attention and time with the students.  Maybe next year, she will even run!

She has regular walks around the school; during Period 2 and Period 4 that are led by the Duty Students.  The students are learning the basics in dog handling and also giving Frances the chance to get out and about on the school property. She even has some one-on-one training with a student, Zoe, who is supporting Frances’ learning and socialisation. This time has aided Frances in the development of her ‘sit’ command and allows students to see what can be achieved in a small amount of time with consistency and persistence.

Frances has recently begun to head out into the yard at recess and lunch time.  She has spent time sitting quietly outside the Year 12 Study Centre, outside the canteen and she has even visited the oval during lunch time.  Frances seems to love the interaction with the students and wanted desperately to join in the ball games last week.  She is slowly learning that the balls are not hers and that when at school she can watch the game but not participate.

As Frances grows and learns, she will provide a welcome support to students and staff at the school.  She is learning her basic commands such as ‘sit’ and ‘get to bed’ and she is also learning that she is not allowed to jump up on anyone!  She waits nicely until she is told she can ‘gobble’ her food but is still foraging with rubbish at other times.  She will be taught not to eat anything until she hears the command but at the moment, this is proving a little tricky.  She is working hard on her recall and showing promise with this command.  Some of this training occurs at school but a lot of it occurs after hours and on the weekends when she has time to also just be a dog.

At 12 weeks of age, she is still engaging in some naughty puppy behaviour like digging up plant pots and chewing things, but she is enjoying being on site and loves to interact with people.  She especially loves the students who visit at lunch time, before she heads out into the yard.