OZTOPDOG 2024 Miss Ollie with a student from Bomaderry High. Photo: Supplied.
Kiama therapy dog, Labrador Miss Ollie, has fetched the OZTOPDOG 2024 title after going paw-to-paw with nearly 300 other working dogs nationally.
This therapy Laborador is making tails wag, offering comfort and support to students and first responders across the Illawarra.
Ollie is well known within the corridors at Warilla and Bomaderry high schools, helping students with anxiety and mental health challenges, along with providing wellbeing and emotional support for Illawarra police and ambulance officers and those involved in dispatching them.
Starting out being puppy raised for Guide Dogs, Ollie encountered medical issues during COVID that were missed, seeing her change career trajectories.
“She came with ear infections, so the head vet took her off the Guide Dog pathway, obviously because hearing has to be spot on, and put her across to therapy dogs,” Ollie’s owner Judi Sandilands-Cincotta said.
Judi said she took Ollie back to basic training and had her assessed for a therapy program, which perfectly suited her temperament.
Described as gentle with a calming presence, she said when Ollie came into a room she could change a person’s mood.
“She’s the dog that can come and detect something and sit with someone and remain seated with that student until that student calms down, or a person,” she said.
“I just picked up on that, and I thought we’ve got to roll with this.”
As a retired clinical nurse consultant in mental health, Judi has also been puppy raising for Guide Dogs since 2018.
“I think people underestimate what a therapy dog can do, whether it’s an individual, a school or an organisation,” she said.
“A dog can go in and create so much change to a culture, and it can be so productive for an organisation to have a therapy dog, because people’s demeanour changes.
“Everyone has bad days, and a puppy can just make it better for you.”
She said the impact of that was seen through Ollie’s work at the Wollongong City Library helping students during their HSC for the past two years, and now expanding the program to Nowra Library.
“It’s well worth our time, because it’s hard doing HSC, your emotions are everywhere, you have expectations and a puppy just coming along … it somehow makes everything better,” she said.
Judi said Ollie was in her second year with the Lake Illawarra Police Station, along with attending the Barrack Heights ambulance dispatch centre and Lifeline at Sylvania, all of which she visited once a month.
“Ollie likes to seek out a few people and they say, ‘Oh, gosh, I was having a bad day,'” she said.
“So, they’re answering their calls, and Ollie’s just placing herself beside them. So they reach down and they pat her. It’s really good to watch.”
Earlier this year she also assisted with the NSW Reconstruction Authority when the floods destroyed people’s homes north of Wollongong.
However, where she spends most of her time is with school students, including next year marking her fourth year at Warilla High, where it’s not uncommon for her to be mobbed.
“What the students say is, it’s the best part of the day when Ollie arrives,” she said.
“She starts to brighten up the office area and then we make our way down to class, and the kids say, ‘Ollie’s here’, and everybody runs.”
She said it was incredible to see the impact it had on the students’ lives at Warilla and Bomaderry high schools.
“You don’t go where it’s easy, because that’s where you’re not going to get that same impact,” she said.
“You go into the hard places, because that’s where it’s really important. You keep going back because in that small window of time you’re making a difference to someone’s life.
“It might not be visible straight away, but that’s not why we’re doing it. We’re in it for the long haul as long as Ollie can keep on doing what she’s doing and, if not, I’ll get another therapy dog and do the same thing.”
She said she decided to nominate Ollie for people2people Recruitment’s OZTOPDOG award because of the organisations involved and the message about making a change in workplace culture and mental health.
Judi is currently puppy raising another Guide Dog.
People2people Recruitment’s managing director NSW Catherine Kennedy said the competition had shown how much Australians valued the role of dogs in our lives, whether at work or in the community.
“This year’s entries were truly exceptional, and it’s been heartwarming to see the outpouring of support and enthusiasm from people across the country,” she said.
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