Powerful New Teaching Tool:
Wellbeing Dogs in Schools
Discover how dogs are being introduced into schools to help students & staff feel more connected and engaged in their learning environment.
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Used by Over 400 Schools in Australia Wide
Here's what you'll discover in your Free Consult:
- Why a wellbeing dog is one of the most powerful teaching tools schools can use in 2025.
- How the introduction of these animals is changing the way we teach and helping embed social & emotional learning.
- The proven impacts a wellbeing dog can have on a school.
- Steps to correctly integrating a wellbeing dog (you’ll need these to get ‘dog-ready’..)
- The dog breeds we recommend and how to train & source them.
- And much, much more.
Wellbeing Dogs Have Been Shown To..
Improving
Connectedness
Enhancing Academic Outcomes
Improve
Relationships
Shift & Eliminate
Challenging Behaviours
Developed for school staff members including support staff, teachers, coordinators, principals or staff who work in wellbeing teams.
Increase the connectedness between students and staff.
Help students feel ready to learn
Build empathy, awareness & emotional literacy in schools
Decrease the number of behavioural incidents.
Reduce time out of class.
Increased attendance rates.
Unlike therapy dogs, wellbeing dogs work as teaching and learning facilitators to help improve student engagement & wellbeing.
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You’re here because you know a wellbeing dog could make a powerful difference.
We’re here to show you how to do it properly.
At Dogs Connect, we’ve helped over 400 schools and organisations across Australia build structured, sustainable wellbeing dog programs that are:
Start Building a Sustainable, Ethical Wellbeing Dog Program — Backed by Australia's Leading Model
“From our very first conversation, we felt safe, informed and supported. This program gives you more than confidence — it gives you a culture shift.”
— Principal, VIC
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FAQs
What kind of dog breeds and size do you recommend working with?
We love working with anything that's got Poodle in it. Generally, the larger version of that – Groodle, Labradoodle, Cobberdogs, or Spoodles. There are so many dogs that end in ‘-oodle’ now. Our general rule of thumb about sizes, the smaller the dog, the higher the intensity and body language. They also tend to vocalize a lot more than bigger dogs, basically jumping and barking a lot more.
The larger dogs from medium through to standard (bigger than medium and sometimes bigger than large) are quite passive in their body language generally. Anything with Golden Retriever, Labrador, or a Poodle cross with those breeds, is a beautiful nature for this work. But there's also so many dogs that you could do this work with. So if you've got an idea of a different breed you'd like to work with, talk to us about it. We're happy to discuss whether it's appropriate or not.
The reason we love working with these breeds is their nature which is generally just beautiful, giving and they offer and love this interaction. But they don't lose much which is really important in lots of places like hospitals, justice settings, schools, and workplaces. They don't trigger many, if any allergies. And they’re are real presence as they tend to look like something that most people warm to. If we think of a really sharp featured large dog like a Doberman Pinscher, and we look at the other version being a medium Groodle, you can kind of see what’s in the heads of people – one is potentially easier to warm to. In the sense of visibly to people who don't know the dog, it's pretty easy to warm to these Poodle mixes. They just look soft, fluffy, and they look really friendly.
This program could be done with any dog. So if you've got another breed in mind, come and talk to us. We'll happily answer some questions.
Could this program be an option if I have my own dog?
Can we do this training with a dog of our own? Or with a mature dog? Or does it need to be a puppy? And that we source it and supply it?
There are lots of different dogs and lots of different ages in this program. Lots of people and communities start with a mature dog, a dog that belongs to a staff member or already in the community. There's a little bit of a process around talking to us about finding out if the dog is appropriate in its temperament, its size, or its breed. Generally, the answer is going to be yes. This training teaches people to have a dog in a community so that people learn to do everything they need for safety and authentic connection. It's full of positives for not just the people but the dogs too. So if this is an avenue you'd like to go down to, talk to us about it so we can clear it up for you.
What age of dogs do we work with?
We quite often start with pups. It’s a beautiful model to work with as people grow along with the young dog as it matures and grows. We also often work with adult dogs from the age of 1 or 2. We’ve got dogs that start this at 3, 4 or 5 years old. We really can do anything. If you’ve got a question about any of this, please make sure you reach out and talk to us. We’d be happy to answer them.
I love this idea, how do I sell it to leadership?
We’ve got resources that will give you information that you need about outcomes, about our organization, our experience, and our partnerships. We can also talk to you about it. If you are wondering how to sell it, we’ve definitely got something you can take and use. We’re happy to talk to you about it more to support you as much as we can.
Does the dog just spend all day with me?
Does the dog just spend all day with me if I’m the primary carer, and if I’m one of the main person doing the training? The answer is no.
That’s not fair to the dog, and it’s not fair to you. This training will teach staff in a community to build a really tight schedule for a dog that’s really thoroughly balanced. We know dogs need interaction. They need exercise. They need down time. They need what we call positive offset time where they refresh their energy field and recharge their bodies. They need opportunities for the toilet. They need time to observe, and time to stimulate themselves with toys and their own fun and activities.
It’s really important that people learn how to build the day for the dog that fits the community, and also fits the dog, because the well-being of the dog is number one. The answer is, it doesn’t just spend all day with one person. It’s about exploring the opportunities and making sure it fits for everyone and the dog.
How do we make sure the dog likes being in the workplace?
A part of making sure that people learn to balance the existence of the working life is about making sure people build authentic connections with these dogs. That involves a lot of fun, a lot of game-based activity with the dogs. It involves a lot of connecting physically – patting, sitting with, being around. It takes time to make sure that the dogs really enjoy these.
This training will teach you how to do it on every single level, but it’s really, really important that we honor what these dogs offer. We respect it, we’re thankful for it, and we need to make sure they love going to work every day.
Who completes the training? Is it for every staff member to be enrolled?
The answer is, basically, not every staff member needs to be enrolled. We only enroll what we call the core team or a core group and that ranges between 2 and 6, or even 12 or 18 staff depending on the size of the community. The people who are in the core team delegate, oversee, implement, and they drive this program because they really want to, and they’re passionate about it. Those people will be handing out messaging. They’ll be letting some of the training filter through to other colleagues, and to other caregivers, students, and people in the community. It really is for a core team to implement. They are supported by our team, and that the training filters through naturally through the opportunities that you can find in your community.
What about people who don't like dogs, who are allergic, or who have a serious fear?
It's a really important question and it needs to be respected and thoroughly talked about. We would prompt people to have conversations around the fact that fear is not something that we should ever attempt to change in people. Allergies are something that are very real in people. There's religions, there's cultures, there's personal differences that mean that not everyone loves dogs.
The answer is to have those conversations really respectfully, and also talk to people about the fact that people can be included in this. It's a really inclusive program. You don't need to touch the dogs, you don't need to be in the space of the dogs to have a really important role or responsibility. Certainly invite people to see this from a distance first and to know that they are never going to be forced into interactions with a dog. It's really important to make that clear. It's really important to listen to people when they do have some considerations that we need to make about this work.
Dogs Connect has been featured in
Trauma-informed
Evidence-based
Aligned with international standards for animal-assisted intervention
Focused on long-term impact —not short-term novelty
This Free Consultation Is Perfect If You’re Asking:
- How do we get started safely and ethically?
- What are the legal and risk considerations?
- How do we know if our dog is suitable?
- How do we prepare our community to do this well?
- What’s the difference between a wellbeing dog and a therapy dog?
We’ll walk you through what’s involved and how our Mentorship equips your team to lead confidently — while keeping your dog’s wellbeing as a top priority.
What We’ll Cover in Your Free 20-Minute Call
An overview of the Dogs Connect Mentorship Program
Key foundations and readiness steps for your setting
What makes our dog-first, human-educated model different
How we help you meet your internal compliance, wellbeing, and risk frameworks
Your specific context, questions, and goals
You’ll come away with a clear understanding of what a structured wellbeing dog program looks like — and whether it’s the right next step for your school, workplace or community.
This is not a one-size-fits-all model.
This is a human-education program that puts the dog’s welfare and your people’s capacity at the centre.
We’ll meet you where you’re at. No pressure. Just clarity, structure, and a chance to explore what’s possible.
Let’s explore what this could look like —
For your people. For your dog. For your whole community.
Dogs Connect
Ethical. Sustainable. Evidence-Based.
Dogs Connect has been endorsed and declared quality-assured evidence based by the Victorian Department of Education and is available as a Tier 1 support on the Mental Health Menu
The Dogs Connect Online Program is available as a quality-assured program in the NSW Department of Education’s Student Wellbeing external programs catalogue in the theme of Sense of Belonging.
Why Dogs Connect?
1
Prepare deeply
2
Learn with structure
Implement ethically
3
4
Support the dog's welfare at every stage
5
Reflect and grow through ongoing feedback & data