Breaking the stigma associated with psychiatric service dogs, we love the opportunity to educate our community on the training and life of a working dog and the tasks they use to mitigate their handlers’ disability.
Assemblies and presentations are tailored to the age of participants and needs of the specific group. They include many facets including how the puppies are raised, the impact the dogs have on humans, mental illness when appropriate and requested, and the future of these exceptional dogs. We have a wonderful group of therapy and service dog teams that join us making the visits fun, interactive, and informative for all involved.
Group Assemblies
At your location: churches, community centers, corporations, daycares, hospitals, public and private schools, office buildings, summer camps, universities and more. Presentations can be done for your full student body or specific grade levels, marching bands or choirs, athletic departments, municipalities, or parent teacher associations for example.
Career Day Participation
We love to be invited to your career day events to share the skills required and the commitment we have to training dogs for the betterment of our community. This can be done as a large group presentation or at a career day fair when participants visit different tables to learn about their professions.
Service Dogs Heal Badge Presentations
Take place at The Exceptional Pet Training Center in Newtown, CT approximately every 8 weeks based on demand. At these events we join different groups together, hosting scouts, athletic teams, youth groups, and other student clubs. Participants receive our Service Dogs Heal badge. We do request a minimum donation of $10 per person for these sessions; some groups prefer to fundraise for us and that is an amazing choice as it also helps with public awareness.
Many groups ask how they can help. Inviting us to come and share our Exceptional Sidekicks with you is the best place to start! Educating the young and old helps open up the conversation about mental health. Some groups want to do more and choose to fundraiser in advance of our visit to build excitement and interest. We have seen some very creative ideas from coins for canine drives, car washes, social media campaigns, bottle and can drives, read-a-thons, school dance or athletic admissions, bake sales, one PTA even sponsored the event after the kids contribute to the school by patching books in the library or being tutors for the younger grade. Serving our community is the foundation of TESSD 501(c)3 non-profit organization and we sincerely appreciate all contributions to support a puppy in training. Donations go directly towards the $32,000 cost of raising each service dog as we strive to make them obtainable for disabled teens and young adults across Connecticut.
