Time to retire for long standing education dog

Shelter rescue Jock has taught hundreds of school kids about dog safety for the past 12 years.

And as Council’s longest standing education dog, the huntaway greyhound cross will be officially retiring from his position this year.

Thirteen-year-old Jock was a spritely pup when he came into the Animal Shelter in 2014.

At around one year old, the friendly canine was adopted by Council’s Animal Management Education Co-ordinator Kym Manuel – and Kym says it was one of the best decisions she’s ever made.

“Jock has been an absolute legend. He came into the shelter as just a young pooch, and now at thirteen he has toured the country for presentations at schools, libraries and public places,” says Kym.

Jock was the original star of the Christchurch City Libraries Reading to Dogs programme and was in Christchurch’s pilot session over a decade ago.

He’s now one of the five dogs working to teach dog safety as part of the Christchurch City Council DogSmart and DogSafe education programmes.

Kym says the free education programmes were developed by the Council’s Animal Management team to teach dog safety to children and adults to help reduce the risk of dog attacks.

“We realised there was a gap in our education approach, so shifted our strategy to focus on prevention and keeping the public safe,” says Kym.

The DogSmart school programme is directed towards years 1 to 8 and gives young kids an opportunity to safely interact with a dog.

As Jock retires, he’ll be handing over the leash to the current roster of canines who are on a mission to help our communities get dog smart.  

All dogs are family pets and are temperament tested before being gently introduced into the programmes.

Animal Management also offers DogSafe workplace training which is designed to help prevent dog attacks on employees who come across dogs in their course of work.

Find out more and apply for a free DogSmart or DogSafe training session via our website.