Maxi is our newest Wellbeing dog. Maxi is a 9 weeks old chocolate Labradoodle. Fully grown, she will be about 12-15kg. Maxi is coming to school in the next 3 months purely for socialisation for her own development, before commencing formal training. 

Maxi will progress through a comprehensive training regime in preparation for working with students at LJBC, with a focus in the Primary Chaplaincy area. Cooper continues to work in the Secondary School, with his Level 1 training progressing well. The key aim of the Wellbeing Dog Program is to promote empathy and wellbeing amongst young people who may be experiencing issues with their mental health and wellbeing, trauma, separation, grief, loss and/or family and domestic violence.

An Australian Labradoodle is the result of breeding a Labradoodle (Labrador / Poodle cross) originally.  The Labradoodle initially were bred to be service dogs.

Intuition
These beautiful creatures are known to be intuative of their owner’s needs, they appear to instinctively sense their emotion. This strong character trait is one of the reasons they make such wonderful service dogs. As pets they love to play, enjoying all sorts of games thriving on attention and making amazing family pets.

Intelligent
Labradoodles are intelligent, healthy dogs with lovable friendly personalities.  It is essential that you provide training early on; or they will do their best to outsmart you!  Labradoodles are often top of the class, in dog training classes, many owners get inspired and take their dogs for further training and agility classes as their dogs enjoy and are easy to be trained.

Non-shedding
The fact that they don't shed their hair is wonderful.  I tend to wear dark coloured clothes and dog hair seems to be attracted to the fibres making it impossible to look smart and professional without valuable time spent removing hairs.  Labradoodles cuts cleaning time as my guys won't shed.

Healthy
Unfortunately labradores and poodles as breeds are sometimes known to suffer from the inheritable crippling disorders hip and elbow dysplacia. As labradoodles are a result of these two breeds I ensure that prospective breeding dogs are x-rayed for signs of this and only those with exceptional scores are used for breeding purposes. This, together with DNA testing of several genetic diseases ensure that we are doing all we can to  provide healthy dogs, as well as developing the health of the breed.

Allergy-friendly
Their unique hypoallergenic qualities are a great bet for allergy victims. Although they are not hypoallergenic (no dog is), they often secrete less dander than most dogs. It is a good idea to groom them at least once a week to prevent matting and clip them a couple of times a year.  Labradoodle's coats can be wool, similar to a poodle, or fleece.  Both are very soft to touch and should be non shedding.