Smart pups learning the ropes

Smart Pups in training Waylan and Wesley learnt about life in the classroom from Sunshine Beach State School students last week.
The dogs have spent six months in the Maryborough correctional centre as part of a pilot program where they are being taught a variety of tasks including wheelchair work, opening doors, picking up dropped items and turning on lights in readiness for life with a special needs child.
The dogs spend their work week training with the special needs children, and have foster families who care for them on weekends, enabling socialisation and familiarisation of other environments.
The Smart Pups organisation also trains dogs to support children with anxiety, diabetes and mobility problems and to be able to recognise and alert approaching seizures.
Waylan and Wesley will be placed with their forever family supporting a child with a disability once they have completed their training and graduated from the program.
Spending time in the school environment prepares these amazing dogs with the necessary familiarisation of the unique sights, sounds and smells of a school environment before they go to support their new special needs child.
Trained dogs are carefully matched to a child with a disability, and can end up anywhere in Australia.
Over the past five years, the school has welcomed 17 Smart Pups in training. Having these special dogs at Sunshine Beach State School enriches the lives of not only the learners in the class but many other learners as well as they have the opportunity to interact with the dogs at break times.
Teacher Carol Sharpe has fostered more than 20 Smart Pups and has witnessed their effect on students.
“Over the years, it has become obvious that having a Smart Pup in the classroom creates a calming environment resulting in a more focused and enhanced learning environment,” she said.