When Darin Phillips, the founder of Grand Dude Studios, graduated from college, his first career was as a social worker for at-risk youth. He spent a great deal of time pouring over papers to identify valid and reliable research that provided evidence that techniques could be learned and used to help his clients and their families. Later, as a corporate trainer, Darin learned methods for helping people at different ages master new knowledge and skills. Merging these two careers resulted in powerful results for coaching clients and proteges. And now, Darin's dog is a behavioral model that shows children how to effectively manage common issues.

Rabbit the Dog learns something, applies it, has to make adjustments, and then shows how a technique can be successfully used. Because Rabbit is not a human, children are able to relate to her regardless of the child's race, sex, etc. It is critical that the reader relates to and cares about the main character to maximize the willingness to learn.

Grand Dude Studios also publishes games that don't really teach anything. Sometimes things just need to be fun.