Human Animal Bonds for Life (HABL), a grassroots 501c3 organization was started in 2015 by yours truly with the mission of:
- educating the youth on dog safety
- promoting force free ways of communicating with dogs and
- eradicating the use of aversive techniques and tools in pet dog training
It all started when I attended a guardian ad litem training in order to volunteer for the Humane Society’s Paws in the Court program. This program allows children involved in negligence, verbal, emotional and physical abuse to spend time with a dog before he/she testifies in order to ease the child’s stress.
There I learned the tremendous benefit that a dog can offer a child and how many children in our community really could use the interaction of a dog. I left there inspired to start something wonderful and two years later, in the summer of 2017 we launched our first ever dog training summer camp at Rocco’s Pack Dog Training.
Through the camp, children (ages 7-12) are afforded the opportunity to teach and learn from rescue dogs. The child serves as an ambassador for the dog’s adoption and for force free communication. Children also walk away with conflict resolution and problem solving skills that serve the child later in life. Rescue dogs leave the program with a solid foundation of household basic obedience training that will enhance the dog’s chances of adoption.
In 2018, we are aiming to offer the program to children in dependent care by raising funds through City Dog 5K, HABL’s signature fundraising event taking place on February 25, 2018. Read more about this event by clicking here.
If you are a rescue organization or a local shelter interested in collaborating to provide rescue pups for the program, a parent or guardian interested in enrolling a child in the program or child welfare orgainization interested in partnering up, learn more at our website humananimalbondsforlife.org and contact us via info@humananimalbondsforlife.org or 786-309-5109.
