The therapy dogs Mac and Millie are Labradoodles who have undergone special training.
They support students at Fleming Fulton School and Harberton School in all areas of study as well as in the development of their social, communication, and motivational skills.
The two schools are close to one another, allowing the furry siblings to communicate.
Mac and Millie are working in the schools now after receiving training from Assistance Dogs Northern Ireland.
Karen Hancock, the principal of Fleming Fulton, praised Mac for the “amazing” difference he made to the school’s students and staff during that period.
“The lovely thing is he is so non-judgemental,” she told BBC News NI. He is Mac and everybody just adores him. He goes right across the school, so he goes into therapy departments and helps children in therapy.”
On Thursday, Mac attended physiotherapy. “We have children who go up to physio who would be taken out of their wheelchairs,” said Ms. Hancock. “Mac would lie beside them and he has a really positive influence on them because they chill, and just with Mac being so still beside them he just seems to be such a motivator.”
“The other thing is that we have children who are practicing walking so I put a lead on him and they can walk him back to class. “A child in a wheelchair can also take him for a walk and it is so motivating for the young people.”
Troy, a senior student at Fleming Fulton, was doing just that when BBC News NI visited the school. He was walking Mac through the hallways. When Mac enters their school, students treat him like a celebrity and give him kisses and short cuddles.
Millie, Mac’s sister, works hard five days a week at Harberton Special School, which is only a few hundred yards away.
James Curran, the administrator at Harberton, claimed that Millie was especially beneficial for students who had autism because she helped them feel less stressed and anxious.
“We have a high percentage of children with autism here in school,” he said. “We know the difficulties that some autistic children have with receptive language and understanding words when people are talking to them all the time. Millie doesn’t talk so for them she’s a quiet companion.”
“With her being in the room and working with a child or with children with autism they don’t feel any expectation from Millie and I think that takes the pressure off them. “Getting them to talk to Millie, they’re always really keen to say: ‘Hello Millie’ or ‘Good Morning Millie’ or ‘Good Girl Millie,’ that is something that Millie brings.
“Quite often they’ve no interest in speaking to me because I don’t mean anything to them, but Millie seems to mean something to every child in our school.” For P7 students Marley and Carlie, that is unquestionably the situation.
Marley told BBC News NI, “She’s a very good dog and she’s very fluffy.” “Some people might have really bad anxiety and Millie’s an anxiety dog so she’s a good help,” according to Carlie.
Additionally, brother and sister frequently get together because of the close distance between the schools. James Curran remarked, “It’s just lovely to think of a brother and sister from the same litter on the same campus a couple of hundred yards apart every day.”
“We go for walks together and we go out and have that downtime for the dogs.” Mac and Millie have started working in the schools and will continue to do so for a while.
Mac and Millie commute daily to and from the school with the principals because they reside with Karen Hancock and James Curran, respectively. According to Karen Hancock, “When Mac’s at home or school and isn’t working he’s an eight-month-old very lively pup who gets up to all sorts of mischief.”
“But when he comes and gets that jacket on, he just transforms into the most amazing caring dog who has a sixth sense for our pupils.”
Credits: BBC News
