Nursery World - Positive Relationships Inclusion: Animal magic

Having a dog on the staff team provides an added attraction for children at one nursery learning about its owner's disability. Annette Rawstrone reports.

Children at Steady Steps Pre-school in Gosport, Hampshire, enjoy having a special staff member - Joey, a black and white cocker spaniel.

Joey is a Hearing Dog and has been coming in to the setting for the past year with pre-school practitioner Diane Duffield. Diane is deaf in her right ear and has 30 per cent hearing in her left. Joey accompanies Diane everywhere to act as her ears, alerting her to sounds.

'When I'm at home I tend not to wear my hearing aids because they are heavy and my ears get sore,' says Diane. This means that I can't hear various things such as the alarm clock in the morning, so Joey's trained to jump on my bed and nuzzle my chest until I wake up. She also alerts me when the phone or doorbell rings, and if the smoke alarm goes off she'll put her paw on me and lay down to signal danger. At pre-school she is trained to react to the fire alarm and the doorbell.'

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