AAA Class Information
Animal Assisted Activity (AAA) programs bring to light how much happiness, love and compassion animals bring into our lives each and every day and how easy it can be to share them with others. Won’t you join us and become a Paws and Think AAA companion animal and handler team? If you are interested in volunteering your time (along with your pets, dog, cats, rabbits etc.) for one of our Animal Assisted Activity programs then this is the place for you! Let us help you experience it first hand!
As an AAA team you will have many opportunities to participate in reading programs at local libraries and schools, area retirement homes, hospitals, grief and elderly day-care centers. We also welcome teams in supporting our community educational booths, special events, and outreach programs.
We offer canine candidates a screening tool prior to taking our class. The screening tool allows you to assess your dog’s readiness for taking the evaluation and whether or not classes may help you prepare for the evaluation. Your dog must come to our classes with good Basic Obedience skills, (e.g. solid sits, down-stays, loose-leash walking) and get along well with other dogs and all types of people. When we have more than five teams in training we always have a training assistant to help as well. Our maximum is seven teams per class.
We use positive reinforcement training, utilize a clicker and demonstrate the use of Shaping to show you how to teach your dog to think for her or himself. We will help you to teach your dog to wait at doors, handle greetings with people and other dogs, how to move around hospital equipment and many other useful and fun things. Do we have your attention yet?
Each class session is on three Saturdays for an hour and a half. The evaluation is offered at the end of the last class, and allows you and your pet to demonstrate that you are ready for visitation at routine venues. We also offer an advanced class for more complex settings. We want to set both of you up to succeed, so that you can handle any situation should it arise!
We have a lot of fun in our classes and look forward to meeting you and your pet! Please contact me for any questions that you have. You can reach me, Carol Davenport at wellred_2@yahoo.com with questions, comments or for information regarding upcoming classes and enrollment.
We look forward to hearing from you!!