ARGUABLY the most popular good girl on campus, Indi the therapy dog made a very welcome visit to Tamworth West Public School this week while she's on "pawrental leave".
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The German pointer cross was pleased to be able to show off her 10 puppies after an accidental pregnancy caused the "career woman" to take a short break.
Her handler Traci Prendergast said it would have been hard to find a face without a smile while students and staff reconnected with their educational support dog and met her seven-week-old pups.
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Mrs Prendergast, the school's psychology practice leader, said starting animal-assisted therapy had been a goal "for some time".
"She spends time in the playground and the kids interact with her; she visits classrooms and listens to some children reading," she said.
"Overall it's a really positive experience for the children and for the staff, just to have that animal presence.
"There is a lot of research around the benefits of having animals in schools, and my goal working with the school counselling psychology team is that Indi can be an asset within our counselling work as well."
After Mrs Prendergast adopted Indi, they and the school principal trained with Therapy Dogs Australia to "create a human-canine therapy team".
Principal Terrie Kay said at the time there was "so much research out there which supports the benefits of including dogs as assistants in education".
Those benefits included dogs being able to: "teach empathy and appropriate interpersonal skills"; be a soothing presence to students; and help children "pick up social cues imperative to human relationships".
Gentle nature
Indi started in term 2 - but soon "had to take her unplanned leave".
"It certainly wasn't planned and has interrupted her career," Mrs Prendergast said.
"But the kids got to learn about the gestation period of a dog and the development of puppies."
Mrs Prendergast said Indi had "a really gentle, easygoing nature".
"She's got a perfect balance of being friendly enough without being in your face, but she's also more than happy to get patted until there's no fur left on her head ... She's still very much early in her career, but she does read the mood of the children.
"Even [during the visit], she knew it was all about the puppies and quite happily let the children interact with them."
When they're ready, the puppies will be "going to their forever home ... so Indi can get back to work".