Commercial Build · Kensington · City of Melbourne
Custom 8m X-Trainer with Built-in Ramp for Seeing Eye Dogs Australia, Kensington VIC
A self-cleaning training pool for the Seeing Eye Dogs Australia centre — with a custom ramp moulded into the shell at the factory so guide dogs in training can walk in and out without strain. There’s no rule book for this build. We worked from the trainers’ practical knowledge of how the dogs move.
Pool
X-Trainer 8m
Colour
Sapphire
Custom
Dog ramp (1:100)
Heating
26°C year-round
The Build
Inside the install
From the custom Nexus shell with its built-in ramp through to the finished training pool, kept at 26°C year-round for the dogs.
The Project
A training pool for Seeing Eye Dogs — with no rule book to follow
The Seeing Eye Dog Association of Australia was renovating its Kensington centre — the facility that trains and houses guide dogs for the visually impaired. As part of expanding the number of dogs they could house and train, they were upgrading kennels, building a wash bay, and adding a swimming pool. We were lucky enough to work with the design team from the start.
The brief — a fibreglass pool that thinks like a concrete pool
A standard X-Trainer shell, customised in the factory with a built-in ramp for the dogs.
SEDA wanted the maintenance benefits of a fibreglass pool, but with the kind of bespoke shape modification traditionally only possible with concrete. Compass’s Nexus customisation technology gave us the answer — we had the shell built with a ‘cut out’ following a 1:100 slope, with a flat training area — all moulded as part of the original pour, not bolted on afterwards.
No rule book
The trickiest part of the build was the design phase — we worked from the trainers’ practical knowledge.
There’s no engineering handbook for “ramp gradient for guide dogs in training”. The fall and length of the ramp came directly from the trainers’ daily experience working with the dogs — what felt right, what worked for safe entry and exit, what didn’t strain the dogs in rehabilitation or exercise sessions. They know the dogs best, so we built around their expertise.
Built to handle a working pool
Heavy dog-hair load, salt chlorinated, heated to 26°C year-round via solar + heat pump.
Dogs shed a lot of hair — even our Vantage self-cleaning system was designed to cope with the heavy load this would put through the filtration. Salt chlorination keeps the water gentler on the dogs’ coats and eyes than traditional chlorine. Heating is a combination of solar plus heat pump, holding the water at a steady 26°C year-round so the dogs can train comfortably in any season.
Working with commercial contractors
A 12-month renovation where our pool was one part of a much larger project.
During the build we worked alongside the commercial contractor delivering the new kennels, wash bay and training grounds. We also raised the pool higher than the surrounding deck level, with built-up landscaping around it — the design called for the pool to sit prominently in the new training facility. Twelve months in, the new centre is fully operational and the dogs are happily settled into their upgraded home.
At a Glance
Project specifications
Pool & design
- Shape
- X-Trainer 8m (Nexus custom)
- Custom shell
- Built-in ramp at 1:100 slope with flat training area
- Colour
- Bi-luminite Sapphire
- Install type
- Raised pool with built-up landscaping
- Location
- Kensington VIC (City of Melbourne)
Features & equipment
- Cleaning
- Vantage in-floor (rated for heavy dog-hair load)
- Sanitisation
- Salt chlorinator
- Heating
- Solar + heat pump, maintained at 26°C year-round
- Use
- Guide dog training, rehabilitation & exercise
- Client
- Seeing Eye Dogs Australia (SEDA)
Why Compass For Commercial & Specialist Builds
Four reasons SEDA chose fibreglass over concrete
Concrete used to be the only option when a pool needed truly custom geometry. Compass’s Nexus tech changed that — and unlocked the maintenance advantages of fibreglass for jobs where concrete used to win by default.
Nexus custom-shell tech
A standard X-Trainer shape, customised at the factory with a ramp moulded into the pour — not retrofitted on site. Fibreglass strength and surface, with concrete-level geometry freedom.
Vantage rated for heavy loads
Dogs shed enormous amounts of hair. Vantage in-floor cleaning sweeps everything to the main drain and was specified here for the heavy load. Operational savings vs. manual cleaning compound fast in a commercial setting.
Solar + heat pump heating
Maintaining 26°C year-round for daily training sessions needs the right heating mix. Solar covers daytime base load, the heat pump fills in evenings and shoulder seasons — both running off the grid, no gas dependency.
Commercial-build coordination
Specialist facility renovations involve commercial contractors, engineers, architects and end-user trainers. We’ve done the multi-stakeholder coordination on a 12-month build before — not just backyard installs.
Commercial or specialist build?
Hydrotherapy, dog training, school pools, aged care, accessible-design briefs — we’ve done custom builds across all of them. Tell us what you need.
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