Brave Tyler heads back to kindergarten

Tyler Hatton - who was bitten by a police dog at kindergarten last week - had a good day back yesterday, but it was marred by another scary encounter.

The 3-year-old from Taradale, in Napier, returned to Riversdale Kindergarten after he was bitten by the dog during a lesson on dog safety, on Thursday.

His mother, Chante Heaven, said although still "completely petrified" of dogs, Tyler put on a brave face and went back to kindergarten, where he said the "policeman's bad dog bit me".

All was well, Ms Heaven said - until school finished for the day.

"We had an encounter on the way from kindy. Someone else was walking their dog to the kindy - and he spotted the dog and got quite upset.

"It may take a while - he may never get over it - but we'll see how it goes."

Tyler was met with several happy shouts of "Tyler's back!" and "I hope you're okay, Tyler" from his many classmates, and was also presented with cards that his friends had made for him.

A number of counsellors were also at the kindergarten yesterday, talking with the children who had seen what had happened to Tyler.

Despite having a little trouble settling back in to the routine class activities, in the morning, he soon warmed up to being back at school, Ms Heaven said.

"He's been naughty and not listening. But he's been through something so of course he's a bit out of sorts."

The police dog was last week being reassessed as its actions against Tyler were out of the ordinary, the dog handler had said.

The Hatton family has repeatedly said that it does not want to see the dog put down, but rather retrained to prevent a similar incident.