About Pack 4 Life

Dr. Jodi-Maree Cronin brings together extensive clinical and professional experience working with people, specialist knowledge of canine behaviour and training, lived experience of disability and PTSD, and almost a decade of work within the assistance-dog and animal-assisted fields.

Her professional background spans medicine, emergency and high-pressure clinical environments, psychotherapy, animal-assisted therapy, assistance-dog training, canine behaviour and training, professional education, and support for people navigating trauma, disability, behavioural and emotional challenges, identity and significant life transitions.

This breadth of experience informs both Jodi-Maree’s work and the broader approach of Pack 4 Life Institute. Trauma-informed practice is an important foundation of the Institute, recognising that both animal and human experiences, sense of safety, autonomy, choice and individual needs can influence how they engage, learn and connect. This approach extends across the practice so that clients and can expect to be supported with sensitivity, respect and an awareness of the potential impact of trauma, regardless of which Pack 4 Life practitioner they work with.

Jodi-Maree’s work with both people and dogs recognises that meaningful and sustainable change requires more than addressing a behaviour in isolation. It requires an understanding of the individual, their experiences, needs and environment, and the relationships and systems around them.

Jodi-Maree’s connection to this work is also deeply personal. Her own experience of career-ending PTSD fundamentally changed the direction of her life. During that period, her assistance dog, Benni, became her greatest teacher — providing not only practical assistance, but profound lessons in trust, communication, connection, awareness and the extraordinary capacity of the human–animal relationship.

Living with PTSD and having an assistance dog gave Jodi-Maree first-hand insight into disability and the realities of navigating life as an assistance-dog handler. Combined with approximately nine years of professional experience within the assistance-dog and animal-assisted fields, this lived experience provides an important perspective alongside her extensive clinical and professional training.

These experiences contributed to the development of Jodi-Maree’s work in Relational Awareness — an approach that extends beyond dog training and recognises the importance of awareness, communication, connection, individual experience and relationships in both human and canine wellbeing. They also became the foundation for Benni’s Ripple Effect, reflecting how the lessons that began through Jodi-Maree’s relationship with Benni have continued to influence her work with people, dogs and the relationships between them.

Today, through Pack 4 Life Institute, Jodi-Maree brings these different strands of experience together to provide specialist canine behaviour and training, assistance-dog services, therapy-dog programs, professional education and practice supervision, alongside education and support that helps people develop greater relational awareness, connection and understanding.

Pack 4 Life Institute is an approved assistance dog training institution under the Queensland Guide, Hearing and Assistance Dogs Act 2009, providing specialist assistance-dog training and support within the Queensland regulatory framework.