On Wednesday 7th August the first ever wellbeing dog service event was held in Manchester with over 20 participants attending. The event went really well and we received lots of great feedback. The event began with a wellbeing presentation on the benefits of wellbeing dogs followed by lunch. During this first session, we collated a mind map on ‘Things that make you happy’ to encourage wellbeing conversations between participants. We then split for walks. Each walk had roughly 8 participants including a MHFA and a First Aider. We met Andy (handler) and Ken a 3 year old Golden Labrador outside the office where we walked along Manchester’s canal.

Extracted from Wellbeing Dog Service Walk 7th August Manchester Atkins Realis