Ethan’s PawPals Story:  Six-year-old Ethan* was let down by the people who were supposed to look out for him.   He was given every reason not to trust the adults in his life, because everyone he trusted had let him down. At his mum’s house Ethan was ignored, yelled at, physically disciplined, neglected and told he was unwanted. He went in and out of his mum’s care until he could no longer safely live at home, and was eventually removed.  Because of everything that was happening at home, Ethan couldn’t concentrate at school. When he misbehaved, he was sent to the back of the classroom to sit by himself and was neglected. He was labelled as the naughty boy and eventually his attendance dropped.  This led Ethan to falling behind in his schoolwork; embarrassed that he couldn’t keep up with the other kids, so he stopped trying.   There were several attempts to place Ethan with a foster family, and every time Ethan got his hopes up, believing he had found the place where he belonged. But because of his challenging behaviour, every single placement fell through.  Eventually Ethan was placed in a residential care home with no other children. It was at this point that Ethan stopped going to school all together. 

When Ethan was connected with Paw Pals Coordinator, Sarah Castle, she discovered that he was feeling so rejected that unwanted pain came out in big emotional outbursts: “When Ethan started at Paw Pals he couldn’t regulate his emotions. There were times where he would lash out and couldn’t control himself because these are the behaviours that he learned growing up.”   Sarah and the team started with the basics; they worked with Ethan on how to interact in a safe and friendly way using the Paw Pals therapy dogs. Ethan learned how to calmly behave with a dog, how to gently pat a dog, and how to play nicely with a dog. 

Watching his four-legged Paw Pal, Indie, through her body language and reactions helped Ethan understand his own behaviours and reactions. Ethan could see that situations that made him stressed or anxious caused him to lose control of his emotions. He learned how to identify these feelings when they happened and learned the steps he could take to calm down.   

Similarly canine commands and tricks increased Ethan’s self-esteem by making him feel confident in his ability to teach others. These activities required a high level of focus from Ethan, which also helped prepare him for concentrating in the classroom.  Ethan eventually got to the point where he could manage his behaviour so well that MacKillop Family Services offered him a place at the MacKillop School in Maidstone. Ethan was so excited to be going to a school where he could see his Paw Pals every day. 

What Sarah found was that Ethan was not an angry, naughty kid who hated school. He was a smart, kind boy who just needed a program like Paw Pals to bring out the best in him, and help him realise his own potential.  Now, as a full-time student in MacKillop’s Maidstone campus, Ethan is an empowered student in his class. “He feels safe, he feels welcomed, he feels wanted, he’s made friends, and he’s able now to participate in the classroom,” says Sarah  If Ethan had never found Paw Pals, he would have continued the path that reinforced his feelings of being unwanted, unworthy, and unloved. He would have been caught in this cycle until he disengaged from school completely.   Children like Ethan who are struggling at home and at school are at risk of falling through the cracks and being left behind.   For more information about the Paw Pals program please click here. 

*Name changed and model image used to protect privacy.