NORTHERN ALBERTA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NAIT wellness dog of more than a decade retires

"There won't be a dry eye in the house"

One day when Linda Shaw was on a routine walk through NAIT with Flynn, the polytechnic's wellness dog, she was surprised by a conversation. A student approached after a crowd of his peers cleared from around her and the cinnamon-coloured labradoodle.

"You and this dog made a big impact on my life," Shaw recalls him telling her.

Just a few years earlier, it turns out, that student was ready to give up, packing up his books and walking out of class. But before leaving the building, he'd spotted Flynn and Shaw, a NAIT counsellor, in the hall then as well.

"He stopped long enough to pet the dog, and we talked a bit," says Shaw, a certified human-animal interventionist. "Something in that pause, I think, gave him enough time and space to rethink."

Sure enough, on that second encounter, the student was not only still at NAIT but, having accessed other student support services after meeting Flynn, had signed on for another program.

Since fall 2014, Flynn has offered such students welcome distraction, raised awareness about counselling services, and even helped facilitate therapy. By Shaw's estimation, the lives of roughly 25,000 students have been touched by the now 12-year-old dog.

It's an accomplishment Shaw sees as "bittersweet," as she celebrates Flynn's retirement on March 19, 2025 - ending a career spent paws-itively affecting the lives of others.

Explore NAIT's mental-health resources

"A key to a doorway"

Even before Flynn, Shaw wanted to integrate animals into counselling. As part of her certification, she researched and built a plan for having a dog at NAIT "as a way to bring mental-health wellness to the students."

After handpicking Flynn from his litter, she began to "quietly" bring the pup to NAIT and train him. But word got out, and a community began to form around the dog. "He naturally got the ball rolling by being there," says Shaw.

Over the years, Flynn has been part of student projects, simulation teaching and research, and served as a model for a guide Shaw helped create for others wanting to offer animal therapy services. But the dog's legacy will be most strongly felt in his ability to reach students.

"He's like a key to a doorway," says Shaw, who also had Flynn accompany her in volunteer roles with organizations such as St. John's Ambulance and the Stollery Children's Hospital. He has unlocked barriers to well-being. "When you interact with a [calm] dog, your heart rate slows down, your blood pressure drops," says Shaw.

But Flynn's effectiveness was unique. "It's the way he interacts," she says. "He doesn't just stand there and let you pet him - he will lift his head up, look in your eyes."

That connection, she adds, could be strong enough to encourage a struggling student to follow up with a counselling session. Sometimes, having Flynn present helped ease students more quickly into identifying and discussing root concerns.

"He truly cares for people," says Shaw. "They pick up on that. And that's what the magic is."

From struggling to successful

"People have a special place in their hearts for Flynn - to the point that they often claim they've never met Linda, and she's been with him the whole time!" says Dr. Tanya Spencer, lead for student counselling and mental health at NAIT. (That said, Spencer credits Shaw for the success of Flynn's time at NAIT.)

No other effort or initiative compares "in terms of helping people feel as though they belong here," she adds. Among a counselling team of nine members, "he's easily the most popular."

Spencer is certain that, when the NAIT community gathers to celebrate Flynn's impact and retirement, "there won't be a dry eye in the house."

Jason Kinswater (Alternative Energy Technology '25) would agree. He remembers Flynn lifting his spirits after a discouraging test, and how the dog helped him deal with the stress of being a mature student with a disability.

"Dogs like Flynn are extremely important for students like myself," says Kinswater. "[Those] little moments with Flynn can be the difference between struggling and being successful at NAIT."

Such stories are motivating NAIT's counselling team to explore future possibilities for animals on campus - a way to honour Flynn's contribution and to address what the group sees as "a loss."

Shaw knows Flynn still wants to work, but she also knows it tires him more than it used to. He's earned his break - whether he wants it or not.

Flynn will likely still come to the office, but off leash and off duty. Just as he made campus more welcoming for students, it has been a place of familiarity and purpose for him, too (not to mention a source of treats from adoring staff members). It's where he still belongs - but, coming full circle, quietly once again.

"He's been at NAIT his whole life," says Shaw. "It would be unfair, I think, to leave him at home."