Shelter & Rescue Program Overview
A person wearing a blue jacket and backwards hat sits with a red and white australian shepherd dog on a rock with a blue sky and clouds.
Rescuing an animal is a rewarding, enriching, and significant act of care. Transitioning an adopted dog into a new home and family is not always easy, and can feel overwhelming at times. We are here to be part of the support network during that transition. We want to set your adopters and their new dog up for success as they navigate their new life together. We provide accessible, affordable support to rescued dogs and their families as they experience the adoption transition.
Through this program, we work to:
Support dogs and their people in building life-long, adventure-filled friendship together.
Build lasting, dynamic relationships with our shelter/rescue partners.
Provide educational support to your shelter/rescue staff, volunteers, and fosters so you can better support the dogs in your care.
Encourage the societal shift of normalizing professional support during the adoption process.
Increase commitment to positive reinforcement training techniques and force-free training tools.
Make professional training more accessible through sliding scale pricing and virtual availability. Questions about virtual training? Click here!
Become a Shelter & Rescue Partner!
How we support our Shelter & rescue Partners:
We support each shelter/rescue with two main services: Virtual Private Lessons & 1-year free access to our Online Classroom for your adopters.
1. Virtual Private Lessons
It is common for new adopters to have many questions as they bring home a new dog. We are here to support them! Together, your shelter/rescue and Summit will decide on a customized package to provide Virtual Private Lessons to you adopters. Criteria we might consider are:
Volume of adoptions monthly or annually
Who needs the support? Do you have behavior cases or are the majority of your cases puppies?
Availability on our scheduling calendar
From this information, we will decide together how many Virtual Private Lessons you would like to provide to your adopters and how you would like to disseminate them. Then, we can provide you with a significantly discounted package, always with the option to add more.
2. Online Classroom
Our Online Classroom includes multiple self-study dog training classes and webinars for your adopters and their new pups to enjoy! Your adopters will enjoy 1 year of free enrollment to our Online Classroom. The Shelter & Rescue Bundle includes 6 main courses:
Positive Reinforcement Training Basics
1-hour webinar on Parenting Your Puppy (or New Dog!)
1.5-hour webinar on Learning Your Dog’s Body Language
Adventure Puppy Basics
Level 1 - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Mini-Course on Reactivity in Dogs
This bundle covers the basics no matter what unique needs each dog has. These courses will help your adopters develop specific skills and management tools to set them up successfully for a lifetime of fun and companionship with their newly adopted dog!
In addition to the two main support services described above, we have plenty of bonuses to offer!
Office hours for shelter staff, volunteers, and fosters. This hour is your opportunity to ask a certified dog trainer questions about training, welfare, behavior, and more! We record these sessions and send them to you afterwards so any staff or volunteers unable to make it can still view.
A running list of additional FREE resources your adopters can utilize, many of which are written and created by Summit’s professional dog trainers. It also includes recommended podcasts and additional reading materials for continued learning.
Your adopters can keep learning in our Online Classroom with additional courses, such as Loose Leash Walking, Polite Greetings, Cooperative Care, and Tricks! We also have a large, and growing, library of low-cost webinars covering a variety of unique topics.
Access to join our private Facebook group, Summit Dog Training Student Community, for direct access to our trainers, connecting with other dog owners, and keeping up to date with our future educational events and resources.
How Our Shelter & Rescue Partners support Us:
By committing to positive reinforcement training techniques and force-free training tools. We believe that any dog going out into the world will be immensely served by positive reinforcement methods. If your rescue or shelter organization doesn't currently have this commitment but would like to move in that direction, we are happy to help with education and solutions to make this happen!
By expanding the dogs and families we have the honor of serving. We provide a wide range of virtual services, including private training, group classes, and community support. We are passionate, experienced, knowledgable dog trainers who are eager to support your adopters during the adoption transition.
By giving us permission to use video and photos of the rescue dogs we work with on social media, in Youtube videos, and handouts. We share many free training resources on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and are always looking for different dogs and families to showcase.
Ready to get started?
You can nominate your organization by filling out the form below, and if it’s a good partner match then we will reach out to get started!
What our rescue partners are saying . . .
Our shelter's foster program benefited immensely from Summit's discounted private training, and I am thankful for our partnership! The dogs in our foster program are oftentimes working through varying behavior & training goals. By connecting our fosters and the dogs they help with Summit's Associate Trainers, both receive crucial training and support. Summit has shown great professionalism, care and commitment to our shelter dogs and their success both prior and after adoption!
Nominate Your Rescue Here!
Nominations should be made by rescue staff or board member with authority to commit to participation in our Partnership Program.
If you have questions about our Shelter & Rescue Program, please email admin@summitdogTtaining.com