Cooper and Kids

02/04/2025

🌟 How adorable do Freddie and Charlie look in their Cooper and Kids Paw Print and "Dogs Make Me Happy" jumpers?! 🌟⁠
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These two are not only great friends, but they also did an amazing job during our puppy programs to help train their new family dogs - Billy the lab and Coco the cavoodle.⁠
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And guess what? We have matching adult jumpers available too! Make sure to visit our website to check them out!⁠
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👉 https://cooperandkids.com/shop/kids/⁠
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31/03/2025

🛑 Education Can Save Lives! 🛑

I know we've shared a few updates about our rebrand, but this is the last one—promise! No name changes here, just a fresh new look with vibrant colours and a shiny new logo. I hope you’re loving it as much as we are!

As always, I’m excited to dive into providing you with valuable education on keeping babies, toddlers, older children, puppies, and dogs safe as they grow together.

Getting yourself educated and learning how to prevent issues is crucial when it comes to avoiding bites. So make sure to follow along for tips and insights that will help your kids and dogs live happier and safer lives together!

Much love,
Mel xox

30/03/2025

Hi I’m Mel - owner and founder of Cooper and Kids.

A little about who I am and what Cooper and Kids is all about:

I’ve been a passionate dog lover my entire life and have always felt a strong connection to kids and families. As a busy mum and dog guardian myself, I know firsthand the chaos, the challenges, and the juggling act that comes with managing a household with both children and dogs.

I’m driven to help families like yours create positive, safe, and joyful relationships with their dogs. My mission is to educate you - dog guardians on the importance of using positive, ethical, and force-free training methods. While I can certainly help you teach your dog to sit or stay, my work is about so much more than that. It’s about helping you truly understand and connect with your dog in a meaningful way.

My Goal: Building Better Relationships
* Understand the dog in front of you – Dogs have emotions and feelings, just like us. Recognising this is the first step toward building mutual respect.
* Improve communication – Learn to listen to your dog and communicate in a way they understand so you can guide them through life in a human world.
* Meet your dog’s needs – Learn how to enrich your dog’s life and ensure their unique needs are being met.
* Enhance safety – Dog bite prevention is something I’m especially passionate about. I’ll help you create safe, positive interactions between your kids and your dog.�
When you communicate in a positive way and learn to really listen to your dog, you’ll build a stronger bond based on trust, respect, and understanding. This is especially important in homes with both kids and dogs.

Cooper and Kids Specialises in:
* Kids & Dogs – Helping families create safe, happy, and respectful interactions between children and dogs.
* In-Home Puppy Training – Guiding you through the early days with your puppy to help you raise a happy, confident, and well-mannered family dog.�
I believe that prevention is always better than cure—addressing potential issues early is so much easier than fixing them down the road.

Let’s Connect!
If you’re ready to strengthen the bond between your family and your dog, I’d love to help. Get in touch, and let’s create a positive, safe, and happy relationship between you, your kids, and your dog!

Mel xox

28/03/2025

As part of our rebranding journey, we have delved deep into our identity and values.

Cooper and Kids is dedicated to "helping families and their dogs transition through every life stage."

🍼 We specialise in assisting expecting families with dogs to prepare for welcoming both a baby into their home.
👶🏻 For families with toddlers, we provide guidance when navigating the challenges that arise as children grow and dogs may feel uncertain.
🐕 Our commitment also extends to ensuring that older dogs live their final years with the highest quality of life.
🐾 Plus, we understand that raising a puppy alongside children can also be overwhelming. That's where we come in—to provide the support and resources you need.

Our training philosophy is rooted in kindness, gentleness, and positivity. We believe that the focus should not be on obedience, but rather on understanding your dog better. By meeting their breed-specific needs and learning how they communicate, we prioritise their overall well-being and happiness. Additionally, we aim to establish structure and routine within the home to benefit everyone.

Whether you are facing specific challenges or seek to enhance your knowledge to prevent issues, Cooper and Kids is here to support you in giving your dog the best life possible.

Our ultimate goal is to promote safety and happiness for every family member.

If you want to learn more or would like to book in a session together, please get in touch.
Mel xox

27/03/2025

📣 🐶🐾 Calling all Dog Professionals (breeders, vets, vet behaviourists, dog minders, dog walkers, groomers, etc) 📣 🐶🐾

Want to learn more about our new online programs?

With our new Puppy Program launching soon, I thought now would be a great time to give you a sneak peek of our two amazing programs:

1. Raising a Happy and Confident Puppy – for Families with Kids
This program helps families raise a happy, confident, and well-mannered puppy alongside young kids. We focus on building safe and positive relationships from the start, so your clients’ puppies grow up to be loving family dogs!�

2. Getting Your Family Ready for Life with Dog and Baby�
This course prepares the whole family for welcoming a new baby into a home with a dog. Educating families beforehand is key to a smooth transition, and we provide lots of great tips and strategies for planning ahead.�

Both programs are online and self-paced, so families can work through them in their own time. They’re packed with loads of engaging content—text, images, videos, and animations!

If you think these programs would help your clients, I’d love to show you around, explain what’s included, and answer any questions you might have!

Details for our first session:
WHEN: Friday, April 4th at 12 PM AEST�
WHERE: Online, via Zoom

Details for our second session:
WHEN: Sunday, April 6th at 7.30 PM AEST�
WHERE: Online, via Zoom

If you’re interested, send an email to [email protected] or send me a DM and let me know which date suits, what industry you’re in and I’ll send you the Zoom link.

If this time doesn't work for you, let me know, and we can look at setting up an evening session the following week if there's enough interest.

I can’t wait to hear what you think!�
Mel

26/03/2025

✨ New Look. Same Mission. ✨

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know we’ve been working on something pretty exciting—a rebrand! And to kick things off, we had the most incredible photoshoot. 🐾📸

This wasn’t just about fresh visuals—it was about capturing the heart of Cooper and Kids: family, connection, and the beautiful chaos of life with kids and dogs. 💛

You’ll see my whole crew here:
🧍‍♀️ Me (Mel), passionate dog trainer and mum of three
👧🏼 Harper, 👦🏻 Paxton, and 👦🏼 Brooklyn, my amazing kids
🐾 Mr. Cooper, our golden oldie who turns 13 this year (cue the tears!)
🐾 Scout, our fun-loving young golden

Watching Cooper age has me feeling all the emotions lately. This shoot felt like a beautiful way to honor him and everything that inspired Cooper and Kids in the first place—helping families build safe, happy relationships with their dogs.

Huge shoutout to for bringing my vision to life. You totally nailed it! 🎯

We can’t wait to share more of the rebrand with you. Stay tuned—you’re going to love what’s coming! 💫

25/03/2025

✨ Exciting news, everyone! ✨⁠
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We're thrilled to announce that Cooper and Kids is getting a fresh and fun new look! 🎉 Get ready for our revamped website, engaging new content, and an all-new Online Puppy Program launching SO soon! 🐾⁠
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Keep your eyes peeled for all the updates!⁠
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Huge thank you to Lucie from Elsi Creative for your incredible work and for your patience throughout this journey! 🙏🏼❤️ We couldn’t have done it without you!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

18/03/2025

S C O U T I S 3 🥳 !

Happy birthday to the baby of our fam!

Honestly this dog lights up our world! All 3 kids are so in love with him. And he loves them all too. And same with Cooper.

Scout is a sensitive boy. He loves cuddles. He loves to play with us. He loves the beach. Getting out for long walks together. He lovesssss coming in the car. He has one or two dog friends and that's all he needs.

It's been so fun raising my own dog with young kids - given that's what I do for a living. And watching how nice things can go when you have the right information, knowledge and education ahead of time.

He has taught us all so much! And we are thankful for him every single day!!

17/03/2025

12/03/2025

PAXTON 💙🥳🎂🎈🎉

Today Pax is 9!

Wow time really is flying. My kids are growing up SO fast.

Couldn't be prouder of this kid. This past year he has started at a new school, in a new footy team, new bball team, made heaps of new friends and just made us so proud!

Pax is smart, funny, delicious, entertaining and an all round LEGO master. He does drive me totally nutty at times and sometimes I wonder if his ears actually work but I love this kid SO much and I love watching the way his brain works.

Happy birthday to my s***k!!
Never stop being you!

07/03/2025

Here's to strong women!
May we know them.
May we be them.
May we raise them.

To all my favourite women in my world- you know who you are! Love you all and thank you for making me who I am today.

Happy International Women's Day!

05/03/2025

Meet Hazel! 🐶👶🏼👶🏼🤰🏼

Hazel is a 3 year old Hungarian Vizsla. And her family are due to welcome twin babies in the home March/April.

Hazel is a sensitive girl. She's a bit unsure and nervous around sudden movements and children in general. So we have lots we can do to help her and her family to get set up and feel more prepared before the babies are here. And especially before those babies are on the move.

Our focus in session one was on:
🐾 Making sure Hazel is happy and having her needs met - in an achievable way they will be able to continue once babies are here.
🐾 Getting the home set up and helping Hazel to learn to feel safe and happy on the other side of a gate to her humans.
🐾 Playing around to find out which food enrichment toys/treats she loves and last long for her.
🐾 Educating her humans on understanding her subtle signs of body language. They are great at recognizing the severe signs in her but she is quite obvious in the subtle ones - once you know what to look for. And then helping them to know how to help when they see her feeling stressed or uncomfortable.
🐾 Muzzle training. This isn't always something we do but this family had already begun the process. And I am all for it and think it's great for everyone to teach their dogs to be comfortable with a muzzle on.

We are hoping to get another session in before babies are here to discuss the homecoming and practice some practical stuff to help prepare Hazel for having babies in the home.

I love helping to educate and prepare families before the babies are here! There really is so much you can learn and do ahead of time to help reduce stress for all.

Get in touch if you want to learn more.

Mel xox

03/03/2025

Good intentions just aren't good enough.

That's right. Usually our children have beautiful intentions. They love the dog. But sometimes a little too much! They hug and smother and struggle to leave the dog alone.

Remember that dogs are living beings with feelings and emotions. Plus they express love and show affection differently to how we do as humans. This can be hard for kids to understand. But just so important for us as parents to learn to understand and be able to see how our dogs are feeling.

Make sure to:
1) Always be actively supervising.
2) Know what you're looking for by understanding dog body language.
3) Advocate for your dog so they aren't forced to speak up for themselves.
4) Have a safe place for your dog to go to that they know is there's.
5) Teach your children and model safe interactions with your dogs.

If you allow your child to do things to your dog that they are just tolerating, one day, they may no longer tolerate it. It's not about a "good" dog or a "bad" dog. It's about a "good" moment versus a "bad" moment. And let me tell you, just like us, all "good"dogs, have bad days and "bad" moments too!

It's generally not for a lack of love, but a lack of understanding. So make sure to get educated and learn to understand how you can help.

Please get in touch if you need help and support with your kids and dogs.

Mel xox

27/02/2025

There are SO many positives that come with living with and raising a dog for both parents and kids.

It is a proven fact that dogs make people happier. They teach you how to care for something other than yourself, they keep you fit and healthy, they always get excited when you come home, they keep us company and they give us unconditional love. They can also help our kids in so many ways!!

Here is a client of mine- 7 year old Charlie doing some fun training with his beautiful puppy Coco. Look at the joy in their faces. It really is just so special.

In saying all of this- the decision on whether your family should bring a dog into your home however, should never be taken lightly. Dogs also require A LOT! So make sure to do your homework and don't go rushing into things. If you want to chat it through - feel free to get in touch.

Mel xox

24/02/2025

Words of wisdom...

Always Be Kind!⁠
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You are your dogs whole world!

In a world where there are so many options, so many approaches to caring for and raising dogs - always choose kindness first!

23/02/2025

Puppies and babies 🐶👶🏼

Bringing a puppy into your world is a big decision. The timing for all families is going to be different.

I do recommend where possible waiting till your kids are older - developmentally it gets easier once your youngest is 5 as they are able to follow instructions etc.

However, sometimes circumstances arise.... for this family, they lost a dog at a young age and just couldn't bear the thought of not having another dog in the home right away.

I am not saying if your kids are under 5 you can't get a puppy. I just love helping people to understand what's involved so you can have realistic expectations.

Having a puppy in the house is pretty much like having another toddler. You need to watch them, teach them, sleep train them, toilet train them, feed them, exercise them, the list goes on and on. To raise a happy dog who has their needs met - can take a lot! And we also know that raising a baby/toddler/young kids - also takes a lot!!

People need to be aware of this before making the commitment, rather than realising they can’t manage and end up needing to rehome the dog.

This family knew raising a puppy with a young child would come with challenges- hence getting in touch with me prior and doing a session to help prepare for bringing the puppy home. Getting educated ahead of time and preventing problems is highly recommended and so much easier on everyone.

If you're thinking about getting a puppy but are not sure on the timing, please feel free to get in touch.

Mel xox

17/02/2025

Sharing with you guys a recent case I worked on...

Poor Poppy really started to struggle when their human baby started crawling.

Something I see quite often.

Here are some of the things we discussed and worked on during our sessions together.

If you have a dog who is struggling too- don't wait for something to happen, please get in touch.

Mel xox

13/02/2025

Dog's are living beings with feelings and emotions too! It's important that we learn how to raise them like loved family members.

However unlike us, dogs can't talk - so it is just so important to learn how they communicate. Dogs are always communicating and we just need to learn how to understand their language. They use their bodies; their eyes, ears, tails, mouths, their whole bodies really.

Here we are educating Coco and her humans on all things dog body language, how dogs communicate and the importance of listening to them and advocating for our dogs. I love how attentive they all are.

Get your family educated ahead of time. Learning this stuff will prevent problems from arising and help your dog and kids to live a much happier life together.