Welcome
White Dog Blue’s youth programs use the powerful connection between people and dogs to create meaningful opportunities for young people to learn, grow, and develop the skills they need to thrive. Through canine-assisted education, reading programs, hands-on dog training, therapy dog experiences, and leadership development, White Dog Blue provides safe, encouraging environments where youth can build confidence, responsibility, resilience, and healthy relationships.
Our youth programming includes TRUE BLUE Youth & Canine Leadership Academy, Junior Handler Training, White Dog TLC – Therapy Dogs, and Red Rover Readers. While each program serves a distinct purpose, together they reflect White Dog Blue’s commitment to helping young people discover their strengths, develop practical life skills, and experience the value of positive relationships with both people and animals.
Why
These Programs Are Needed
Young people today face increasingly complex social, emotional, and personal challenges. For youth experiencing significant adversity or instability—including young people in the foster care system, juvenile detention centers, residential treatment or care programs, and other settings serving youth in crisis or transition—the need for positive relationships, consistent mentorship, and opportunities to develop confidence, resilience, and practical life skills can be especially important.
Many of these young people have experienced circumstances beyond their control that can affect their sense of identity, trust, belonging, and hope for the future. Providing a safe, consistent, and encouraging environment where they are valued, heard, and given opportunities to succeed can help young people recognize their strengths, develop healthy relationships, take responsibility for their choices, and begin building a positive vision for their lives.
A frustrated student may discover the importance of patience. A student who struggles with consistency can see how inconsistency affects communication. A student who lacks confidence can experience the satisfaction of successfully teaching a behavior or building trust with a canine companion. These experiences make concepts such as responsibility, emotional regulation, communication, empathy, trust, and leadership tangible and understandable.
Many traditional youth programs focus on academic achievement, recreation, or prevention. While these services are valuable, and our programs include these, there is also a need for engaging, experiential programs that help young people understand themselves, practice positive behaviors, develop healthy relationships, and experience their own capacity for leadership.
White Dog Blue’s youth programs help meet this need by combining canine-assisted education with hands-on learning, mentorship, service, and personal development. Dogs provide a unique and engaging teaching partner. They respond to body language, tone, consistency, boundaries, patience, and communication. As young people learn to work with dogs appropriately, they are also given opportunities to examine their own behavior and responses.
our youth programs
Red Rover Readers uses the comfort and encouragement of canine companions to support literacy and help young people develop confidence as readers. The presence of a calm, nonjudgmental dog can create an inviting environment where children are encouraged to practice, participate, and experience success.
Junior Handler Training introduces youth to the responsibilities and rewards of working with a canine companion. Through age-appropriate dog training, students learn communication, patience, consistency, observation, responsibility, and safe animal handling while developing confidence and a stronger understanding of the human-canine relationship. Sessions are provided in a summer camp setting, providing mini sessions for youth ages 7-15.
White Dog TLC – Therapy Dogs provides opportunities for youth to learn about the role of therapy dogs and participate in meaningful interactions that encourage compassion, empathy, and service. Through appropriate dog therapy experiences, young people discover how their relationship with a dog can become a way to positively impact others in schools, senior communities, healthcare settings, recovery programs, and other community environments.
At the heart of White Dog Blue’s youth development efforts is the TRUE BLUE Youth & Canine Leadership Academy, which brings together canine-assisted education, dog training, leadership development, and mental health-informed practices. Designed for young people who may be considered at risk or who would benefit from additional support, positive mentorship, and opportunities to build resilience and life skills, TRUE BLUE teaches a fundamental principle: effective leadership begins with learning to lead yourself.
Through hands-on interaction with canine companions, students practice self-awareness, self-discipline, emotional regulation, communication, responsibility, empathy, healthy boundaries, conflict resolution, and perseverance. Dogs provide an immediate and engaging way for students to see how their choices, behavior, communication, patience, and consistency can influence an outcome.
TRUE BLUE provides youth with a structured environment where they can learn, practice, reflect, and try again. Students are not simply told what positive leadership looks like; they are given opportunities to experience it.
Across all of White Dog Blue’s youth programs, our goal is greater than teaching young people how to work with dogs. We use the human-canine connection as a pathway to help young people recognize their own value, develop healthy relationships, experience success, and discover their capacity to lead.
White Dog Blue believes that investing in young people before challenges become lifelong patterns can strengthen individuals, families, and communities. When young people are given a safe environment, positive relationships, meaningful responsibility, patient guidance, and opportunities to succeed, they can begin to see themselves—and their future—differently.
Our goal is to cultivate calm, consistent, compassionate leaders who are equipped to navigate challenges, build healthy relationships, serve others, and contribute positively to their communities. Through every program, White Dog Blue seeks to empower young people through the human-canine connection and create opportunities for both people and dogs to thrive together.
OUR MISSION
Bringing together canine assisted therapy and education with dog training and mental health, we cultivate an inspiring space where people and dogs are valued, understood, and empowered to thrive.
OUR VISION
Empowering individuals and communities through human-canine connections that inspire healing, growth and resilience.
THE WHITE DOG
WHITE DOG BLUE Eli the original dapper dude who started it all. “Just being with him brings me so much peace,” the young woman said as we walked together. She lived in an adult foster home and had asked to join me on my neighborhood walk with my dogs. The “he” she was referring to was Eli, my white German Shepherd pup. Eli had a calm, gentle presence and eyes that seemed to invite people in. Over the years, he and I connected with countless individuals, and I witnessed the unique power of a canine’s presence in moments of pain and trauma. We began formal obedience classes with Eli and his new companion, a hound named Carolina. My hope was to have them both certified as therapy dogs to work alongside me in my coaching practice. But life shifted unexpectedly. First, COVID halted in-person work, and then Eli passed away suddenly from a brain tumor. Everything came to a halt. In 2022, I was invited to visit a group of young women in a detention center. During my visit I shared stories about our dogs, many of whom had experienced extreme neglect or abuse before coming to live with us. One dog in particular—Remi, who had endured the worst—captured their attention, and they asked if they could meet her. After consulting with our canine behaviorist, we agreed. My world shifted again that day as I witnessed healing happening in real time, for both the girls and the dog. I started envisioning a new kind of work. For the next two years, Remi and I visited the students weekly. As Remi healed, we began formal therapy dog training for her and for our older girl, Carolina. The students were fascinated by the training process and wanted to help. That was when I realized it was time to pursue the vision that began years earlier with the beautiful white dog Eli. Both dogs completed their training and were certified for therapy work, and I went on to complete my own education to become a canine trainer. This year, under my coaching nonprofit, REN Collaborative, I launched White Dog Blue, with a mission to bring together canine training and mental health—cultivating an inspiring space where people and dogs are valued, understood, and empowered to thrive. Our programs include youth development, recovery and life transitions assistance, therapy dog visits, and canine-assisted reading. The standout program is the TRUE BLUE Youth and Canine Leadership Academy, which pairs young people with a canine partner for hands-on training experiences that build leadership, responsibility, and essential life skills. I’m grateful to now work with my own dogs in my coaching practice and to support others in building meaningful relationships with theirs. I look forward to continuing my education in the therapy-dog field and to helping both people and dogs grow, heal, and thrive together.