Living the Queen Life: Margaret Foley Podcast Chat with Sarah Macdonald

In this episode my guest is Sarah MacDonald of Canine Comprehension. Sarah Macdonald is CEO & Founder of Canine Comprehension. After changing careers from a secondary school teacher to a dog behavioural therapist Sarah decided to combine the two and create an innovative business that looks for solutions to school disengagement and child resilience building.

Canine Comprehension brings therapy dogs to schools and homes around Victoria to positively interact with students, giving them essential support to improve their motivation, confidence and self-regulation. Canine Comprehension is an entrant in the 2022 ROAR Success Awards, and Sarah has been awarded the Commonwealth Bank Australian of the Day and a Silver Stevie® Award in the category of Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Asia, Australia or New Zealand category in 2019.

Last year, Canine Comprehension was nominated in the Animal Assisted Learning (AAL) Category at the Animal Assisted Therapies Ltd Conference Awards and was a finalist at the Australian Small Business Champion Awards. In 2021 Canine Comprehension won the Australian Achievers Award - for excellence in customer relations In this episode we talk about Sarah’s personal experience with mental health issues, her advice for women around being confident and overcoming the self-doubt that we all feel at times no matter how “successful” we might seem to be on the outside.

Sarah’s story of leaving behind a career that she once imagined was forever to follow a love of animals and how it then developed into a business with a purpose helping children and their families is an inspiration.

We chat about the benefits of therapy dogs for children in particular in educational settings, more in demand than ever as children struggle with the return to school and live in our “Covid normal” world, and the difference between a therapy dog and a well behaved family pet.

Canine Comprehension offers dog assisted learning interventions throughout Metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.