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Joker the 10-year-old Bull Terrier participates in the Responsible Pet Ownership program with his owner Nikki Zullo.
The Responsible Pet Ownership program involves dogs and their owners visiting primary schools to teach children from as young as 4 years old up to those in Year 2 responsible and safe etiquette for interacting with dogs and being safe around pets.
Joker is used as one of the demonstration dogs presenting in a live demonstration to children on how they can safely interact with dogs.
“One of the great parts of the role is when the children actually get to come up and put into practice what they’ve learnt with Joker, which is just awesome to see.”, Nikki said.
Joker’s main role in the Responsible Pet Ownership Program mainly involves attending preschools and primary schools with Nikki, teaching important knowledge and skills to children up to Year 2. Joker has been working in this role and in the program for five years. It is a busy role for Joker and Nikki as they spend nearly every weekday attending preschools and primary schools.
“We give a little presentation that teaches children how to safely and properly greet a dog, and then we actually let them practice what they’ve learnt afterwards with Joker.”, Nikki said.
“At the end of our talk, we do what we call a meet and greet and, in the preschools, we can have up to 28 children per session that come up and practice their skills with Joker afterwards.”
Primary school sessions tend to have around 12 to 15 children participating. Nikki and Joker also attend schools where children have additional needs, and Nikki says this is where Joker excels.
“In the area that I live in and the areas that I visit for work, there are quite a lot of autistic children and children who use mobility aid equipment, and we have visited schools for the blind and partially deaf as well.”
“Often, I visit schools and one of the first things we do in the presentation is a section called ‘do nots’ that goes through different scenarios of when we can and can't touch a dog.”
Nikki says the number of children who were unaware that they shouldn’t touch their dog if they are sleeping or eating and say their parents let them do these things was surprising, and a common misconception of people of all ages is to pat a dog on its head. It is much safer to pat the side and front of a dog’s chest as it is less intrusive and lowers the risk of startling dogs.
“We have had lots of children that come rushing towards a dog because they get excited and assume all dogs are very friendly and outgoing.”
“Our main goal is to help improve their knowledge and also reinforce not touching dogs that are working, training or if their owner says no.”
Once the children have learnt the important skills and knowledge, Joker likes to do some tricks to also make it a fun experience for them.
For a dog to be part of the Responsible Pet Ownership Program, it must go through a suitability test first. Dogs that are a banned breed in Australia and or deemed dangerous are not eligible to be in the Responsible Pet Ownership Program, or dogs with cropped ears or those trained in any bite sports.
Dogs must be a minimum age of 18 months before they're allowed to be suitability tested, and those over nine years old can't be tested however, they can be part of the program for as long as they like.
“With the suitability test we have our dog team that actually flies up from Melbourne, and we are part of the Primary Industries in down in Melbourne.”
“They fly up, and they assess the dogs in a mock school setting which has every kind of scenario possible in a school.”
During examinations, owners can speak to their dogs, but their dog must remain calm and be engaged with what they’re doing. Once they have passed the suitability testing phase, dogs can then go into the schools.
“We have a certain number of visits where our dog team again flies up from Melbourne, and they assist us in the school and attend the six different talks.”
“It starts in a preschool setting with about 10 children and then goes up from there.”
The dog team attends again for two sessions in one day to see how aspiring pet educator owners and their dogs go with the presentations. Nikki says every 12 months after that the dog team flies back up from Melbourne again, and they get retested inside schools once again.
Nikki says while obedience training is not compulsory for the program, it does help.
With the main goal being to teach children the safe protocols of greeting a dog, Nikki says it is rewarding to see them learn and use that knowledge, knowing that they have remembered it after some time.
“I had a young girl during the COVID period come up to me as I was walking Joker, and she said ‘Can I please pat your dog?’ and I thought it was very nice of her to ask, and she did all the correct steps.”
“I thought this girl must have had the program before, and as she walked away, she said, ‘Thank you for letting me pat Joker.’”
“I was surprised and a little bit confused as I didn’t tell her his name and it turns out that Joker and I had visited her school last year so it was great to see that she had carried that on into everyday life.”
Fun-loving, full of spirit, courageous, very intelligent and stubborn at times with an even temperament, the Bull Terrier is well known to be good with people, especially children, the Bull Terrier is lovingly considered to be the ‘clown’ of the canine world.
“Bull Terriers are fantastic for the program, and Joker is the sixth dog that I’ve had in the program, and what makes them great for the role is that they're fantastic with both adults and children.”
“They do get a bad name because they are a Bull Terrier but people don't understand just how tolerant these dogs are of children.”
Nikki says Joker is very stable and tolerant despite some incidents where children have incorrectly greeted him.
“My program bosses really love that Joker is just so resilient to it, so it doesn't bother him, anything that happens.”
“And that's the great thing about a well-bred Bull Terrier is literally anything that life throws at them, they just stay there, chill and calm.”
“Another thing that makes Joker great for the program is he does have a big personality and at the beginning of the presentation he'll usually kind of splat himself out on the floor and it makes the children feel a little bit more comfortable around him because he is a big dog.”
Joker being a purebred pedigree dog, Nikki says this ensures predictability in behaviour, temperament and size.
“Joker was bred by us, and we could see that he had his mother’s fantastic temperament, and his dad was also the same both were quite chilled, laidback dogs.”
“I like having that stability of knowing the background of my dog and being a powerful and strong breed, it is important to know their background and that any undesirable traits are not passed on.”
Dogs Australia is a not-for-profit organisation advocating for the preservation of purebred dogs through ethical breeding.
It champions the highest standard of animal welfare through education and fostering dog-loving communities.
Internationally recognised and established in 1958 as the Australian National Kennel Council (ANKC),
the organisation promotes responsible dog ownership; maintains the ORCHID* heritable canine diseases database;
funds research into canine diseases; and supports state and territory-based member bodies.
Dogs Australia promotes breed conformation shows and community sports for dogs that fulfil a breed’s natural instincts.
