Free Dog Training Classes are BACK

First it was a one-off pilot project with a class of college students studying what supporting your human and animal communities looks like in action, then it was 18 classes over 6 weeks with more college students, and now it's an ongoing AWU project. There's a bunch of reasons for these classes, and supporting our community is just one of them.

Let's start at the beginning. Three-ish years ago, I was teaching Bachelor of Science students about animal sheltering. We talked at length about operations inside of a shelter. We covered the basics like how animal shelters and rescues get their money, what "success" looks like according to various models, what is within the scope of a government-funded shelter, etc. We also got into the fun stuff like evaluating dog behavior, adoption counseling, and even running playgroups.

Here's the thing about having me as an instructor: I'm always looking to raise the bar higher, and always trying to teach students what is on the horizon as they consider entering this field as a career. So we got to talking about community-based sheltering. We had guest speakers who talked about how absolutely critical foster programs are for your program. We talked about how a large part of an animal control officer's job is to get the animal home without ever bringing them to the shelter. We talked about how human problems become animal problems, and the importance of not separating those two issues.

So that brought us to asking, "how can our students help our local community?"

I reached out to friends at local nonprofits: The Deviled Eggery and Una Vida. At that time, I happened to be having lots of really engaging conversations with the founder of the Deviled Eggery about how animal welfare is a social justice issue. For example: If you set up a program that offers affordable housing, but you exclude people based on the breed and/or size of their dog, you are excluding those people from your program. Likewise, if your addition recovery program requires people surrender their pets prior to entering the program, you might be separating that person from the whole reason they're seeking help in the first place. Humans can absolutely be motivated by their pets to seek help to feel like they are creating a better life for their pet by taking better care of themselves. After our first two-hour conversation, the founder looked at me with big eyes and just said, "Wow. I had no idea, but it makes total sense. I am in."

I knew of the work that Una Vida was doing both through their frequent partnership with the Deviled Eggery and the reputation that Una Vida has amongst the local community. Long story short: The work they do brings tears to my eyes. They provide free food, no questions asked, to people in need. Their social media posts request specific items for people who have asked, and their tone is consistently nonjudgemental and positive. 

So that's how we ended up in a four-way partnership between Animal Welfare United, Deviled Eggery, Una Vida, and Bergin College of Canine Studies. That partnership culminated in a single event that we couldn't come up with a clever title for. We just said, "Come get free dog training." 

The students and I set up at an Una Vida food giveaway event. We had three people who spoke Spanish fluently available at the event to translate. (Una Vida's resources are always available in English and Spanish.) We ended up seeing just a handful of people, but the larger impact was massive. When asked, "How many of you spoke to someone today who really needed to talk to a dog professional," every single student raised their hands. The Deviled Eggery founder shared the sentiment she overheard:

 "Loving your dog shouldn't have a price tag."

We could not agree more.

Between that summer and the next, my gears were turning. "This needs to be more than just a one-off event." So when the next semester came around, I threw the challenge down to the students: "We're going to lead three simultaneous classes twice a week for six weeks. You all will lead those classes." The classroom took a heavy breath and exchanged nervous glances... "You'll be the first people ever to do this kind of program." The classroom's energy slowly built into a mix of excitement and anxiety. They were just as determined as me to make this dream a reality.

So we prepared for six weeks, teaching the students the foundations of dog training classes, client interactions, etc. We mixed learning-theory heavy lectures with hands-on classes modeling what their group classes might look like. I knew the students were more than ready, but they disagreed. We had fantastic classroom discussions about what they could expect leading group classes for the first time. (None of them had led public group classes before.) We talked about our values as a class, and made a point to make sure that we developed a team-like mentality. 

That mentality and those values proved just as important as the students practical and theoretical knowledge of dog training and behavior.