Project POOCH's provides life-changing opportunities for adjudicated youth and shelter dogs. Youth learn basic kennel management and dog training skills, along with basic job and life skills such as patience, compassion, responsibility, and working with others by caring for and training dogs, and operating a kennel.
Project POOCH works with two at-risk populations: incarcerated youth and homeless dogs. Project POOCH partners with local shelters to identify dogs that could benefit from socialization, confidence building, and basic dog training. Youth and dogs at Project POOCH often come from a background of abuse and neglect. Youth and dogs get to experience growth, change, and unconditional love. The program helps the youth develop the self-confidence and hope they need to build future relationships.
The relationships, emotional support, and mutual trust and friendship established between the trainers and their dogs are transformative. Youth practice the principles of positive reinforcement and reward-based dog training. The dogs learn to be well-behaved companions. As the trainers teach the dogs, they learn how to manage their own behavior and develop emotional maturity in the areas of patience, responsibility, and compassion.
Incarcerated youth develop the skills needed to become productive and compassionate citizens in the community once they are released from custody. Life skills, job skills, and emotional maturity contribute to a youth's success once they return to their community, reducing the likelihood of re-offending. Shelter dogs find loving, forever adoptive families and are less likely to be surrendered to shelters.
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