A big thank you to Chris Peddler and the Bendigo Advertiser team for sharing our story and how it is expanding.
IT STARTED in 2015 with Grant Shannon, his idea and a dog named Sonny.
Now Sonny is overseeing the new generation of Dogs Connect dogs that have been placed in more than 20 schools.
Next week the program expands again with five more well-being dogs preparing to join staff at five Bendigo schools.
Dogs Connect is a program designed to help social and emotional learning while focusing on the well-being of students by introducing a dog into the classroom.
Grant founded the program and has spent a number of years developing it.
It originated when Grant was working as a teacher and was presented with challenges around student behaviour.
His research around student well-being combined with practical experiences led him to founding Dogs Connect.
Grant’s dream of seeing a dog in every school in Australia might have seemed far fetched six years ago but it continues to move closer to a reality.
