YOIs/PRUs – Lesson Plan
Session One
Dogs, Body Language and Canine
Communication (N.B. All lesson plans can be adapted to fit
longer or shorter timeslots)
Time
2 hours
Materials
Laminated photos
Flash cards
Detailed activities description
Materials
Engagement (c15mins)
Worksheets
Find out who owns a dog, what type, who is worried
about dogs, why, general experiences with dogs,
good and bad.
Warm Up Activity (c20mins)
Laminated Photos,
Match the Breed – the class is split in two groups.
laminated description
Each group is allocated a board with photos of
of breeds
different breeds of dogs on it. Flash cards with short
description of different breeds are stuck randomly
on the wall around the room. The groups have to go
around the class to collect and match as many
flashcard facts to the correct dogs in their selection,
in the time allocated. At the end, the trainer then
calls out the answers to see how many each team
got right. Discuss the reasons why and how they
made their decisions (looks, previous knowledge,
hearsay, assumptions, myths etc.).
Information(15mins)
Identify the breeds of dog using the laminated
photos. Discuss how common the breeds are and
what they were designed to do and what they do
now.
Main Activity (c20mins)
It’s a Stare Down! - Have everyone stand up and in
Breeds Flash cards
a circle. When trainer says ‘Stare Off’ everyone
closes their eyes. On the command ‘Stare Down!’,
everyone must look up and make direct eye contact
with someone else in the circle. They are not
allowed to change eye direction. If the person they
make direct contact with is also looking at them,
both youths are out and have to sit down (they can
help spot any cheating going on!). Continue until
you have a winner or winners or until time allocated
is up. Discuss with group how direct eye contact or
someone staring at them, makes them feel
(uncomfortable, threatened etc.). Explain what it
means in the dogs’ world (aggression, confrontion).
Information (c15mins)
Use flash cards of dogs and dogs interacting with
each other to explain and discuss dogs’ behaviour
and body language. Focus on how this differs from
human body language.
Feedback/evaluation (c15mins)
Hand out worksheets:
 Link the correct dog body language photos
with the equivalent human body language
photos.
 6 photos of different dogs, 12 different
character traits are randomly placed on the
page. The youths are asked circle a breed of
their choice and the character traits they think
go with that breed.
Dogs’ ‘body language’
flash cards
Worksheets
Alternative Warm Up Activity
‘If you were a dog what type of dog would you be?’ - The youths have 5 minutes to think if their
personality traits were matched to a particular breed of dog, which would they resemble? Breeds
flash cards are passed around with different dogs to give the youths ideas of types of dogs. At the
end of the 5 mins, the trainer asks everyone to say what breed they would think they would be and
why. This is an excellent opportunity to then address ‘breed stereotypes’ but also to get the youths to
relax
Alternative Main Activity, 1
Youths are asked to space themselves around the room and walk around, using all available space
and avoiding others. The teacher then holds up one of the dogs’ body language flash card. Whilst
they are walking around the room in any direction, the youths have an opportunity to think about what
they are seeing for a few seconds. On a predetermined signal (woof) they all freeze and they need to
represent through body language and facial expression what the dog is trying to say. They are only
given a short amount of time to think about and create their ‘emotion freeze’. Trainer should praise
everyone’s efforts, comment on particularly good examples and perhaps ask pupils that might have
misread the dog-signals why they thought what they did. Youths unfreeze, as game moves on,
continue to mingle and walk around as next flash card is held up until the next signal to freeze. At the
end discuss which feeling was the easiest and most difficult to portray and why.
Alternative Main Activity, 2
‘Dog Talk’ - Split the class in pairs or small groups and give them a photo of dog in certain situation,
displaying a certain body language, with speech bubbles. The groups have 10 minutes to think of
something the dog/s would be saying if hey could speak and write it in speech bubble. They will then
present their work to rest of the group and explain their reasoning.