How The D.O.G. Programme Began

The D.O.G. series has been such a long journey that sometimes I have to remind myself just how far back it actually started.

Way back in 2017, I was writing and illustrating a children’s book called Lolly – I Can Be Brave and So Can You! a picture book designed to help young children build emotional resilience, following a little girl and her dog as they used creativity to overcome a fear of the dark.

At the time, I was working from a coworking space in Brixham, Devon and that is where I met Steve Shepherd, who was working for SWGfL. Steve had seen me illustrating and approached me with an idea. He was looking for a new online safety book for young children, something that could replace an existing resource he had been using in schools, but which he felt no longer quite did the job he wanted it to do.

He asked if I could help create something new.

I said yes, of course becuase I only had a thousand other things to do that day and its seemed like a fun project to work on.

Steve sent me a list of criteria the book needed to cover, and we began talking about what this could become. At first, we wondered whether it might need to be more than one book. I briefly played with the idea of using my Lolly character and her dog, but it quickly became clear that she didn’t quite fit this new world.

Then the names Fizz and Seth came along.

My good friend Nikki, who ran the coworking centre at the time, had two children called Fizz and Seth, and their names seemed to fit the idea perfectly. They felt bright, memorable and child-friendly. Pixel came along a little later, because I felt the stories needed a voice of reason — someone protective, gentle and wise, who could help guide the children through the online world.

A dog felt like the natural choice.

Before I was born, my mum had a St Bernard called Bo, and I had always loved the idea of a big, protective dog standing beside a small child. Visually, it felt right. A St Bernard is huge, warm and reassuring — exactly the kind of character I wanted Pixel to be. His name happened quite naturally too. It needed to connect back to online safety, and Pixel just fitted.

Not long after this, I moved to Reading. I was in a new city, feeling a bit bored and missing the South West, when my partner and I decided to do a huge Harry Potter movie marathon. We watched all the films over two days.

After that epic weekend, I was still mulling over the learning objectives Steve had sent me. Then an idea landed.

What if this was not just one or two books?

What if it became a whole series of books that children coud grow up with?

From the first day they start going online, right through to the day they are old enough to sign

up for online banking, children and young people could have stories and resources that helped them understand the digital world in a way that matched their age and stage.

In my mind, it became a little like Harry Potter — not in story, of course, but in structure. A series that children could grow with, where each stage introduced new themes, new challenges and new learning in different ways.

That was the moment the bigger idea for The D.O.G. was born.

The name itself came from a funny little moment while I was living in Reading. My partner and I had noticed that so many of the office buildings around the city had huge acronyms on the front, and one day we were chatting about what some of them might stand for. Later that evening, I was looking back over the online safety project materials when the idea of using D.O.G. as an acronym suddenly came to me. It almost felt like it appeared from nowhere: Dedicated Online Guardians. But as soon as I said it, it just fitted. We already had Pixel, the protective St Bernard, and the idea of children having a loyal guide beside them as they learned to navigate the online world felt exactly right. The logo followed from there. It was a nod to Steve’s time in the police force, but it also gave the project a sense of authority, which worked so well for the subject. The yellow and blue colour palette kept that subtle police connection, while still feeling bright, playful and child-friendly.

I drafted the first book, began creating the illustrations, and slowly the first edition started to come together.

It still took a whole year to get the first book printed and online. We were both working on it in our spare time, fitting it around work, family life and everything else.

And then, for a while, the project almost disappeared completely.

We looked at applying for EU funding, but then Brexit happened. I got pregnant, and almost immediately afterwards Covid happened. Then, tragically, Steve was very unwell and spent a lot of time in hospital, which understandably put everything on hold for several years.

But wonderfully, Steve recovered. Lockdown eventually lifted. And, amazingly, during that time, I moved back to Devon with my now husband and baby daughter.

Through all of this, Steve and I kept in touch. Very slowly, the project began to come back to life.

I started illustrating the second book and began writing and editing again. This time, I used a proofreader and editor to help check over the story. The early editions of the books only had a small amount of supporting information at the back, but as the project developed, I could see that they needed to become much more than stories.

Then, after 2023 and the rapid growth of AI, things began to shift again.

I started training a GPT using my own illustrations, characters and content. This helped speed up parts of the creative process massively. Suddenly, we were able to draft, develop and shape the next books much faster than before.

But it was never a case of pressing a button and letting AI do the work.

Every book still needed a huge amount of editing, rewriting, design work and hand illustration. I still had to go back over the images, refine the characters, improve the layouts and make sure everything felt right for young children. I also found another lovely local lady to help with proofreading and editing once the books were complete.

As the new versions developed, they became much richer. They began to follow the format of my emotional resilience books, with games, questions, learning activities and information for grown-ups. This helped shape the whole series into something much more meaningful than a set of picture books.

They became a full learning resource.

After many months of not seeing Steve, (I'm fairly sure he was off saving the world as a real life 007) he was once again able to be more involved in the project again, and now that the first KS1 set is complete, we can begin thinking about the next stage of the series.

But the part I am most excited about is what has grown from it.

Now that we have a full set of stories and resources, I have begun designing and writing a complete programme for parents, teachers and educators to deliver to children. It brings together online safety, emotional resilience, creativity and early intervention in a way that feels practical, gentle and age-appropriate.

The D.O.G. series began as one conversation in a coworking space.

It grew through years of life changes, pauses, illness, motherhood, moving house, new technology, and a lot of late-night creative work.

And now, it is becoming something we always hoped it could be: a resource that helps children build the skills they need before the online world becomes too big, too fast or too overwhelming.

Because online safety is not just about rules.

It is about confidence.

It is about emotional resilience.

It is about helping children stop, think, check and know who they can trust.

And that has always been the heart of D.O.G.