About the Delta Society

Delta Society Australia, a national non-profit organisation, was registered under the Corporations Law as 'a company limited by guarantee' in 1997. It is a registered charity in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT. The Society was granted Public Benevolent Institution and deductible gift recipient status by the Australian Tax Office in the financial year 2000-2001, based on its health promotion and education programs. It is income and fringe benefits tax exempt and all donations to the Society over $2.00 are tax deductible. 

The Society operates on a corporate governance model, with a Chairman and a Board of Directors. Under its constitution no director may receive a fee or any financial reward (other than out of pocket expenses). If there is a surplus at the end of any financial year it must be used to maintain and expand the activities of the Society.

The Society’s mission is to promote and facilitate positive interaction between people and companion animals. Currently it pursues this mission through four core projects: 

• the Certificate IV in Companion Animal Services - Canine Good Citizen™ education programs;
• the Delta Dog Safe Program;  
• the Delta Therapy Dogs program and;
• the Delta Classroom Canines program.

Delta Dog Safe™ Program is a pro-active, dog friendly school education program for 5 to 8 year old children, their parents and local communities. Designed by Delta Australia as a public health initiative it teaches safe and sensible behaviour around dogs, both family pets and stray or street dogs. Dog Safe™ programs are well established in Tasmania and South Australia. The Delta Therapy Dogs Program involves temperament testing volunteers’ pet dogs and training the volunteers to become Therapy teams. All of our teams are clearly identified - the volunteers wear attractive monogrammed polo shirts and their dogs wear stylish bandannas - and have a high community profile. 

Our dogs are involved in recreational, diversional and play therapy activities and increasingly in goal oriented therapy. In January 2012, there were over 750 Therapy teams were visiting residential care facilities and hospitals in branches based in Adelaide, Hobart, Devonport, Launceston, Melbourne, Geelong, Bendigo, ACT, Sydney/Central Coast, Newcastle, the Central West (NSW), Brisbane and Townsville.

Volunteers and their Delta Therapy dogs will visit any institution where re-establishing contact with a companion animal enhances the quality of the patients’ and residents’ lives. The joy and therapeutic benefit that our visiting volunteers and their Delta dogs bring to our clients – from small children to frail elderly nursing home residents - really has to be seen to be fully appreciated. 

The Delta Classroom Canines™ Program is designed to assist children improve their literacy skills, using one of our specially trained volunteers and their Delta accredited dogs. The volunteer visits their allocated school on regular basis i.e. weekly at a set time that coincides with the student’s lessons on reading and works either with an individual child or in a group environment. The program concentrates on children that have difficulties with reading but are not able to be a part of the Reading Recovery program for various reasons but the child still needs that additional assistance. However, this does not exclude our volunteers from working with students who are in this group and our volunteers have been trained to handle this environment as well. The program is aimed at improving children’s health and wellbeing and providing schools with an additional learning tool to encourage the overall development of a student. 

Click here to meet the Board of Delta.