Can Dogs Brighten up a Child’s Life?
To create a safe and fun environment for children & young adults with special needs to express themselves and communicate through the healing companionship of dogs.
In October of 2016, we introduced our first Special Pups Camp in conjunction with Calgary Cerebral Palsy. The camp gave the kids a chance to learn all about dogs, meet other kids their age and play fun training games with the dogs. The camps arts with learning about dogs, how to greet them and how to touch them. We then move into teaching some basic commands with each Childs “dog for the day”. We have a fun pizza lunch and then the afternoon is spent in some fun completion based on the training the kids worked on in the morning.
Special Pups ran until February 2020 with great success, as most camps were oversubscribed; this was a testament to the popularity of this program. We had approximately 300 kids and their families attend Special Pups camps over this period. Unfortunately, due to the restrictions implemented due to covid-19, we had to suspend operations of Special Pups…. But we’re not done yet!
Absolutely they can. In 2016 a former employee of Clever Canines, Brittany Harrison came to us with the idea of setting up a program to teach & expose kids with special needs, in this case specifically with Cerebral Palsy all about dogs. In many instances, pet dogs are out of the question for these kids and their families so this was an opportunity to help these special kids experience the joy of having a dog as a companion.
Our Vision
What we Did
The Results
