Weird school happening

[swamp]

DS is a junior in HS.  Once of his teachers (humanity type class, not science) breeds hunting dogs.  AKC registered champion blood line hunters.     I believe he has 6 dogs (maybe 4, maybe 7, I don't know exactly).    He often brings a dog to work with him, and DS often takes the dog out for a potty break for the teacher during a study hall. 

So DS was in class yesterday and the teacher brought one of his dogs in.   And the dog was giving birth.  He had a birthing nest set up in the corner of a classroom.  DS saw the 7th puppy born.   He was so excited to tell me all about it. 

I thought it was really weird.   I'm not opposed to it, I just thought it was strange. 

Your thoughts? 

[giramomma]

The birth part is a little strange.

DS has had teachers bring in dogs into the classroom at our highs school. I'm surprised they allow it, but whateves.

And also, how did your son get to be a junior?

[swamp]

Oct 19, 2022 10:49:04 GMT -5 giramomma said:

The birth part is a little strange.

DS has had teachers bring in dogs into the classroom at our highs school. I'm surprised they allow it, but whateves.

And also, how did your son get to be a junior?

Not sure.  

ETA:  Several teachers bring their dogs in, usually on Fridays.  The dogs tend to be older and of the large working/hunting dog breeds, not the yappy ones.    I'm also surprised it happens, but both  my kids love dogs and look forward to it, so whatever, it makes them happy.  

[Tiny]

It seems very strange to me - but then I live in the land of steel and concrete with 6 million other people.    My HS had 2500 kids in daily attendance.         And by this I mean I'm not sure how well a dog would handle the chaos of class changes with thousands of kids changing classes (the class rooms usually had 25 to 35 kids crammed in)   I'm also thinking the ambient noise of all the people could be overwhelming for an unprepared pup.    

I don't think I'm opposed to it - but, I think it depends on the area and the local High School.


It does blur the line between personal life and work life - not to mention primary job and side hustle/second job.   And then there's the insurance liability - what if the dog bites a kid   OR   what if a kid hurts the dog?     


I'm not opposed to it,  it's just in a gray area and I'm not sure what shading of gray it is (light gray and relatively benign or dark gray and opening up a whole host of not good issues (favoritism, danger to students, etc...)     

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Oct 19, 2022 10:38:59 GMT -5 swamp said:

DS is a junior in HS.  Once of his teachers (humanity type class, not science) breeds hunting dogs.  AKC registered champion blood line hunters.     I believe he has 6 dogs (maybe 4, maybe 7, I don't know exactly).    He often brings a dog to work with him, and DS often takes the dog out for a potty break for the teacher during a study hall. 

So DS was in class yesterday and the teacher brought one of his dogs in.   And the dog was giving birth.  He had a birthing nest set up in the corner of a classroom.  DS saw the 7th puppy born.   He was so excited to tell me all about it. 

I thought it was really weird.   I'm not opposed to it, I just thought it was strange. 

Your thoughts? 

That is strange.  Maybe he couldn't find a sub for the day so he could be home with the dog?   Wouldn't really bother me.  While I live in an urban area everyone here has seen at least one video of a cow or pig giving birth at the state fair.  Or watched the actual birth itself, Gwen still talks about how tramautizing seeing a cow deliver and then eat the afterbirth right in front of her was.  You should know where babies come from by HS. 

That would have been awesome for Developmental Biology in college.

My 3rd grade teacher bred, raised and showed champion Yorkies and Maltese.  She would bring them to class if we did really well on tests/quizzes as a reward.  She had 13 of them.   It was always exciting.

[mollyc]

I agree it’s weird.

I can see wanting to keep an eye on a birthing dog. DH has had to assist a few times over the years. At least once there was a pause of about an hour when we knew there were more pups to come.

But I wouldn’t want to stress Mom out with a bigger audience then her regular people if it wasn’t necessary. And I wouldn’t want to risk a kid or a puppy being hurt because Mom’s protective instincts kicked in. We’ve had Moms charge when someone not DH or I got too close too soon.

Not something I would do to my girls.

And then there’s the potential drama from parents if a puppy is stillborn or dies. Heaven forfind that kids learn life isn’t easy.

[raeoflyte]

Pet people are weird.




(Spoken as a pet/animal person who has volunteered with shelters and lives with a vet tech).

[swamp]

The kids had strict instructions not to touch mom or the pups and to give her space.    I did address that with DS.  

[swamp]

Oct 19, 2022 10:53:03 GMT -5 Tiny said:

It seems very strange to me - but then I live in the land of steel and concrete with 6 million other people.    My HS had 2500 kids in daily attendance.         And by this I mean I'm not sure how well a dog would handle the chaos of class changes with thousands of kids changing classes (the class rooms usually had 25 to 35 kids crammed in)   I'm also thinking the ambient noise of all the people could be overwhelming for an unprepared pup.    

I don't think I'm opposed to it - but, I think it depends on the area and the local High School.


It does blur the line between personal life and work life - not to mention primary job and side hustle/second job.   And then there's the insurance liability - what if the dog bites a kid   OR   what if a kid hurts the dog?     


I'm not opposed to it,  it's just in a gray area and I'm not sure what shading of gray it is (light gray and relatively benign or dark gray and opening up a whole host of not good issues (favoritism, danger to students, etc...)     

School is 7 to 12, about 660 kids total, probably about 20 kids per class.  I think the classroom is kind of on a side hallway and pretty quiet.   

[haapai]

It  might have been considerably stranger for the dog than the kids. 

[finnime]

I agree that's weird. Safety issues also touch on the question of how did the teacher transport the mother and litter at the end of the day? I had thought they should not be moved for a time.

[Deleted]

Not a choice I would have made but hey, if it makes the female students decide they do NOT want to get pregnant any time soon, I'm all for it.

[minnesotapaintlady]

I live in the land where we have an entire huge "Miracle of Birth" building at the fairgrounds where they cycle animals through all two weeks to have their babies in front of thousands so doesn't seem weird to me. 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Oct 19, 2022 12:21:11 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

I live in the land where we have an entire huge "Miracle of Birth" building at the fairgrounds where they cycle animals through all two weeks to have their babies in front of thousands so doesn't seem weird to me. 

DH cracked me up last time we went through because all these people were getting icked out over the cow birth.  DH turns to me and goes "Yep that's pretty much what it looked like when you had hte girls".

Poor Gwen was horrified and asked if I ate the after birth too. 

[TheOtherMe]

I had never seen anything born until I saw one of Beth Stern's fosters give birth to her litter on Instagram live.  I was fascinated and grossed out.  

Her little yelps of pain and then eating the afterbirth.  

Yes it's weird, but I see nothing wrong with it unless some parent decides it was some kind of "grooming"  

[Deleted]

Oct 19, 2022 13:00:14 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Oct 19, 2022 12:21:11 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

I live in the land where we have an entire huge "Miracle of Birth" building at the fairgrounds where they cycle animals through all two weeks to have their babies in front of thousands so doesn't seem weird to me. 

DH cracked me up last time we went through because all these people were getting icked out over the cow birth.  DH turns to me and goes "Yep that's pretty much what it looked like when you had hte girls".

Poor Gwen was horrified and asked if I ate the after birth too. 

I saw an episode of 90 Day Fiancee recently where one cast member said she had her placenta freeze-dried, powdered and encapsulated and took a capsule daily after the birth.  She and others swear it helps with losing baby weight, stabilizing hormones etc.  

[toomuchreality]

I have read a lot of articles lately about dogs going to schools, to help kids with anxiety. I suppose this was more to be sure the dog didn't have problems during the birth. Especially if they are expensive breeding dogs. You wouldn't want to lose a pup, or the mom.
Although it's unexpected, as long as the teacher was prepared to answer any questions, I wouldn't be upset.

[NoNamePerson]

When in school in 1962 we were told there was going to be a showing of live birth in class (college) we had the option of not attending! I opted to see the film. They wheeled the Mom in and the birth proceeded from there in all it's gory black and white! It was a baby boy and I hate to admit that all I got out of it was thinking "some boy is going to be sitting in a class 19 yrs later watching film of birth and realizing that that's his mom and him"  I realized then that I have a warped sense of humor. 

My OBBYN didn't understand when I blurted out before going into delivery room "nobody better be filming this"  I probably threw in the f word but I was pretty much out of it. I didn't know I said it but student nurse told me later. We had a good laugh.  

[bookkeeper]

I don't know how the school administrators feel about the dog birth, but I think real world experiences like this are not often presented in high school.  I would be for it.  People should know how animals procreate.  They should also know where their food supply comes from.

[dannylion]

It's a real-world experience maybe a lot of the kids would never otherwise have.  Aside from whatever issues it might have presented for the dog and the puppies, I don't see anything wrong with this at all.  It's weird in the sense that it's not something that happens in school every day, but a lot of really bad things happen in schools, so something interesting and positive that results in puppies doesn't even register on the shock-o-meter.  As long as the dog and puppies did not experience any adverse effects, it sounds like one of those things that people will remember as something positive that happened in their high-school experience.  

In any event, I'm in favor of benign weird things taking place in controlled environments where young people can see responsible adults behaving like responsible adults so they can get an idea how to react when something weird happens and they are the only person available to handle whatever it is that happened instead of freezing or running away.  

[Opti]

Oct 19, 2022 15:18:53 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

I have read a lot of articles lately about dogs going to schools, to help kids with anxiety. I suppose this was more to be sure the dog didn't have problems during the birth. Especially if they are expensive breeding dogs. You wouldn't want to lose a pup, or the mom.
Although it's unexpected, as long as the teacher was prepared to answer any questions, I wouldn't be upset.

Weird, but I like your take on this.

[tcu2003]

Weird, but mostly I wouldn’t care. Except DD has a decently severe allergy to dogs, so I would hate this for her. I don’t want to have to give her Benadryl to learn in the classroom.

[teen persuasion]

DS4 is in BOCES for building trades (half the school day, other half is his core classes). One of the other BOCES trades involves dogs, so they often see the dogs around the building (or wandering into their work space).

I remember years ago it was common for someone in the ES to incubate eggs so that the little kids could watch chicks hatch each spring. There were classroom pets, too. One summer we cared for the class degu while school was out. I think animals in the regular school buildings was quietly phased out due to allergy or other concerns.