About The Blue Dog

The Blue Dog Trust was founded as a non-profit organisation in 2005. It recognised that there are many scientifically proven benefits relating to human health and child development associated with having a dog as a family pet. However, there are also risks from disease and physical injury from bites. All dogs have the potential to bite and dog bites have been shown to be more common in young children in their own home, most often by their own dog. The challenge therefore is to devise safe ways of living with a dog in the family that retain all the benefits yet reduce the risks.

Teaching children a series of safety rules to prevent bites has been shown to be ineffective. The Blue Dog programme is unique in that it is designed to teach children, and their parents, to recognise potential risk situations and so avoid them. The main resources are the Blue Dog Interactive animations consisting of “The Blue Dog stories” and the “Test yourself” module, and our accompanying parent guide (available as printable pdf).

The Blue Dog Trust has previously formed partnerships with groups in a large number of countries who were responsible for the translation, production and distribution of the DVD/ Parent guides in their country. Moving to free access to Blue Dog on the webpages allows access to parent guides online.
Please note – the Blue Dog children’s animations are accompanied by musical sounds, no language is needed.

The Blue Dog programme has been developed by experts from multi-disciplines from around the World. The professionals section provides up-to-date research data relating to bites as well as being a source of valuable downloadable material. The schools section shows how teachers can usefully incorporate the programme in their classroom, giving ideas for lesson plans as well as providing downloadable resources.

We are indebted to many individuals, professional associations and commercial companies for help, advice and financial support. These are acknowledged in the Partners section.