Canine Commandos Training Dogs to Give Them a Second Chance | Virginia Hamilton

Canine Commandos is a unique community/service learning experience. Their dream is for the Commandos to be in every school, in every shelter, in every community.

Many dogs are overlooked for adoption in shelters due to lack of training.  The public bypasses dogs that are jumping and barking; untrained.  The Canine Commandos (300 students, 18 schools) rotate on a daily basis to provide consistent training to help these dogs get a second chance at a new home.  

Virginia Hamilton is a teacher and lives in a community where two shelters are high kill due to untrained behaviors.  To improve the adoption rates, the students created Canine Commandos to teach basic obedience and help these dogs get a second chance.  This program teaches the students to care about the animals, their community, and their self-confidence which leads to caring about their academics to make successful gains.  Canine Commandos, now in its 13th year, provides a unique opportunity from at-risk students to gifted training in three shelters.  The students turn community service into service-learning by choosing projects to reflect upon their experiences in their academic subjects where they showcase and celebrate at an Expo at the end of each school year.

Questions Judy will ask:

1. Why was the project started?

2. How do the animals and students benefit?

3. What are the costs?

4. Can you provide the number of animlas trained and the success rate?

5. Has the program been acknowleged?

6. If the public wanted to help (donate funds), how would they do this?

Learn more. www.CanineCommandos.com

Contact Virginia Hamilton

hamilton.virginia@brevardschools.org

321.723.2811 x3020