AAEC's Canine Education Program:
AAEC High School’s Canine Education Program is a 501c3 non-profit program started to help place working dogs with well-deserving members of the community. This after school extracurricular activity provides tremendous opportunity for leadership and responsibility skills for AAEC students. It requires a four semester commitment from each team, made up of a student handler and their working dog in training. During the two years the team goes through a rigorous curriculum that will prepare the student for life after high school and the dog for its canine career.
The Canine Education Program works closely with the Veterinary Science Program at AAEC, which is a prerequisite to enroll. The Canine Education curriculum expands upon similar topics including advanced working knowledge of canine medicine, anatomy & physiology, nutrition, and behavior. It also includes new topics such as canine training techniques, learning theory, disability awareness, and federal and state regulations regarding service dogs. The application process is selective in order to ensure that students understand the responsibility training a working dog demands. It gives students the opportunities to rise to these challenges, while simultaneously providing leadership, teamwork, and public speaking opportunities.
Once the dogs have graduated they are placed as service dogs or working dogs for the public. Service dogs are gifted free of charge to veterans, first responders, and other individuals with disabilities that have served the community.
Program Goals:
AAEC High School’s Canine Education Program is a 501c3 non-profit program started to help place working dogs with well-deserving members of the community. This after school extracurricular activity provides tremendous opportunity for leadership and responsibility skills for AAEC students. It requires a four semester commitment from each team, made up of a student handler and their working dog in training. During the two years the team goes through a rigorous curriculum that will prepare the student for life after high school and the dog for its canine career.
The Canine Education Program works closely with the Veterinary Science Program at AAEC, which is a prerequisite to enroll. The Canine Education curriculum expands upon similar topics including advanced working knowledge of canine medicine, anatomy & physiology, nutrition, and behavior. It also includes new topics such as canine training techniques, learning theory, disability awareness, and federal and state regulations regarding service dogs. The application process is selective in order to ensure that students understand the responsibility training a working dog demands. It gives students the opportunities to rise to these challenges, while simultaneously providing leadership, teamwork, and public speaking opportunities.
Once the dogs have graduated they are placed as service dogs or working dogs for the public. Service dogs are gifted free of charge to veterans, first responders, and other individuals with disabilities that have served the community.
Program Goals:
- To provide students with:
- marketable skills: the ability to train canines using positive reinforcement
- training technique
- canine behavior/medical knowledge
- general canine knowledge
- leadership opportunities and public speaking skills
- a platform upon which they can expand this knowledge if they so choose
- an opportunity to discover their passions
- To provide graduated service dogs for disabled recipients who otherwise may not have been able to train one themselves
- To educate the public, recipients, and students about working dog etiquette, and the laws surrounding them
- To strengthen the canine-human bond through education - by helping people understand canine behavior
What Types of Careers do We Train Dogs For?:
Our current focus is on training service dogs for individuals with disabilities or working dogs to assist the community . Although this is not an exhaustive list, this includes:
Our current focus is on training service dogs for individuals with disabilities or working dogs to assist the community . Although this is not an exhaustive list, this includes:
For more information see our About Working Dogs Page. |