DOGSAFE Training for Service Stream

Field workers face occupational hazards most office workers never encounter. For Service Stream’s technicians and meter readers, dog encounters represent the single biggest safety risk in their daily work, frequently resulting in injuries, lost work time, and psychological trauma.

Service Stream had developed their DOGSAFE process nearly a decade ago, a systematic approach to minimise risk when entering customer properties. However, many workers still lacked clear understanding of the protocols for assessing and managing dog-related dangers.

Traditional training methods like dense manuals, static slides, or procedural lists weren’t creating the instinctive responses workers needed when standing at a gate deciding whether to enter. Partnering with Service Stream, we needed to transform existing safety protocols into training that was memorable, accessible to a multilingual workforce, and effective enough to become second nature in critical moments.

We developed an 8-minute animated training video centred on Scout the Snout, a friendly dog safety expert who delivered authoritative guidance without being heavy-handed. Inspired by the clarity and warmth of shows like Bluey, the animation placed workers directly inside realistic field situations.

Rather than listing rules, the video embedded each letter of the DOGSAFE acronym within relatable scenarios, showing workers the exact steps they would take on site, from checking devices for dog alerts to assessing property risks.

Following the training rollout, Service Stream saw a significant rise in dog-related incident reports. This didn’t indicate more attacks. It demonstrated that workers were now identifying and reporting potential risks, exactly the behavioural shift the training was designed to achieve.