| Summary: | This study, based on the sociocultural perspective, aims to show the significance of motivation and feedback concerning pupils with writing problems. The study was based on a writing task which lasted every school day for five weeks. Observations were made during the interventions and along with a survey they create the result. Eighteen pupils in fourth grade from two rural schools participated in the study and in each class were pupils who had special needs education previously. Pupils from school A wrote, read the text to and were given feedback by, a teacher. Pupils from school B wrote, read the text to and were given feedback by a dogassisted teacher. A dogassisted teacher has a living tool, who by the presence only, gives an entry to the pupil’s mind which can be hard for a teacher to achieve oneself. The pupil feels acknowledged by the dog and accept the feedback in a positive way thus the review might be experienced as negative. The study shows that a school dog enforces the confidence by letting the pupil be superior to the dog and at the same time the pupil embraces what the teacher delivers with the voice of the dog. The results of the study show that both pupils in school A and B experienced increased motivation and pleasure in writing. Charts and tests can provide answers regarding the cause of the difficulties but the real challenge is to develop various ways to work that encounters and suits every single pupil. There has been a wish not to pit methods or motivational efforts against each other, rather to find various success factors for pupils with special needs. Because of pupils diversity and hence the teachers methods need to offer alternatives. One of these alternatives could be dogassisted teaching because the study shows that The dog is more that man’s best friend – it could also be the best teacher.
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