My childminder has a dog, it's a black lab. It's soft as anything and both my little ones love it, my childminder was really surprised at how well they both got on with Jake right from the start as obviously a big dog can be quite intimidating to little ones. If she's minding kids with dog phobic parents then he goes into a large cage.
I think there are different types of childminder, I know mine is qualified to do the early years stuff, she's fantastic and does so much with the little ones she looks after. Apart from my mum and sister she is the only person I trust to look after my kids (they each go to her for 4 hours a week so I can have some one to one time for half a day with them). I met a couple childminders turned new parents when I had Ella at a postnatal group and tbh they were so rank I wouldn't have let them look after my rabbit!