 Today I am talking to you about this fab new book by Cheryl Drabble who I know mainly from Twitter, I'll link to her below, who wrote all about getting a school dog. So Cheryl is an assistant head teacher in Blackpool, they're a special school and let's just say they had some fun games so they thought they'd write all about it for other schools who were thinking of doing something similar. So I would recommend this book if you like dogs it's got cute pictures in it and doodles is just adorable and quite naughty so it's quite good fun so it's good fun if you just like dogs but also if you are a school obviously who are thinking about introducing a dog to your school then it goes through quite a lot of the kind of practical side of that and what you shouldn't shouldn't do and some of the things to bear in mind. So I'll give you a little bit of an overview now so we'll look first at the contents so you can see what to expect so I'll show you that here and so you can kind of see that it works through you know they they kind of research though they did and then when they got the puppy and then the practicalities and the ardi ardi ardi ardi basically though look at number 12 mischievous doodles this is the best chapter like if you just read one chapter of this book you have to read about mischievous doodles it's adorable so yeah I'll give you an example this is doodles at Christmas time this dog honestly sounds hilarious Christmas presents posed a real problem for doodles he absolutely loved presents class teachers had meticulously wrapped up presents for under the tree for the children in their classes doodles wasn't above opening them if he wasn't kept on a very short lead he didn't stop there either just to add insult to injury he would have the paper off before I noticed he had got the present and we'd be playing with the toy right in front of the class teacher and the children so naughty so but but yeah so that's the funny side of it but then actually there's lots and lots around the practicalities of why you might get a dog and I really liked the the case studies in the book so Cheryl like really clearly outlines the big impact that doodles had on like some specific children so one of the kids who doodles has had a significant impact on was Mason and I'll put the full case study here so you can read it but essentially Mason is a kid who is in a wheelchair and kind of would prefer sometimes we pushed around rather than be independent and the school always trying to encourage him to be independent and to take the long route around school in order to kind of build up his strength and maintain his independence and he used to be quite reluctant to do that however now that he knows that he'll get to see doodles on the way because he'll go past the head teacher's office then there's no encouragement needed he's super keen to see doodles and so suddenly he's doing lots more independent self propelling in his wheelchair so you see like yeah a big difference that the dog makes to him and his daily kind of routine just by motivating him to do things slightly differently. Another highlight to give you a kind of feel for the book so this isn't like the practicalities chapter which isn't like the most exciting but it is possibly the bit that you know if you're trying to get your senior leadership team or your governors on board you need to have all this stuff sorted so here we're thinking about things like risk assessments you've got to have a risk assessment in place covering hazards arising from having a dog in school for example the hazards could include dog feces poop and we and causing illnesses or falls and the precautions would clean would be cleaning up any dog mess immediately etc etc etc so it kind of talks through like the granular detail of what you need to think about before you would have your dog in school. It's both kind of a fun book that also kind of is a really touching story about the journey of this school Cheryl and the kids and doodles together and the difference that it made to the children and the staff as well having doodles in school but it's also super practical so if you're looking to bring a dog in then it would be a really good port of call and what are my three favorite things about this book I always like to have a top three so number one I just doodles is cute like I love dogs as you know my dog's often in my videos at the moment he's sulking in the shed because it's warmer in there but I like being outside and anyway yeah so I love the pictures of doodles and just the fact it's about dog yeah say that and number two I like the fact that it's really honest so you feel like you get a kind of genuine sort of warts and all idea about what it would be like to have a dog in school rather than just a sort of oh look how wonderful we are look what we did this feels like really genuinely honest and yeah you'd be going in with your eyes open if you'd read this before getting a school dog I think and then you're finally I just think it's a really practical and realistic starting point if you wanted to get a school dog so and people often ask me about it and I've never really known what to recommend and now I do so I like it from that point of view I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to any school thinking about getting a school dog and be equally if this is a journey that you're thinking of embarking on I would definitely follow Cheryl on Twitter and tweet her because she will respond and she'll talk to you about what's currently going on with doodles and that kind of thing so yeah drop her a line if you want to know more but yeah great book really enjoyed it would recommend yeah enjoy hope it was helpful do leave a comment below if there are specific books or resources that you would like me to review in future videos and tune in every Tuesday and Friday for new videos and please subscribe thank you bye