BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

A number of students at Clearpoint Elementary school in Pointe Claire recently wrapped up a lunchtime activity learning about respect and responsibility for creatures smaller than them – and a lot furrier too. Since January, the Dogz R Uz non-profit organization taught the participants basic pet care and how to act safely and responsibly around dogs.

“The response has been really, really good,” said Andrea Bottomley, the Dogz R Uz program co-ordinator. “We were expecting maybe six or seven kids to sign up, and we actually had 21 signed up.”

In addition to educating the students about how to safely act around dogs and take care of their own, the Dogz R Uz team also hopes to underline the importance of adopting animals, rather than buying them in pet shops.

“No matter how many the shelters take in, the dogs keep coming in,” Bottomley said.

The Dogz R Uz program evolved out of Foxy Canine Companions, an organization that found homes for nearly 400 dogs between December 2003 and October 2006. After a year-long break, Foxy was reborn as Dogz R Uz, concentrating its efforts on education and awareness campaigns. “The rescues, they don’t have time. They really have their hands full and can’t concentrate on the education side.”

Clearpoint principal Sam Bruzzese said the Dogz R Uz lunchtime program fit in very well with the school’s philosophy.

“One of the things we’re trying to do is make the kids aware a good member of society gives back,” he said. “Many of the kids have pets and we wanted them to have an appreciation. A pet is not a toy. A pet is a living creature, and there are responsibilities if you have one…I have nothing but good to say about the program.”

Dogz R Uz is currently working on a number of projects to bring their educational programs to other schools, local summer camps, and senior citizens, to name a few. According to Johanne Tassé, head of the Companion Animal Adoption Centres of Quebec (CAACQ), this kind of education is necessary and should be started at a young age.

“We’re thrilled to see this kind of program. There should be more,” she said. “People have to understand they’re dogs. They have a certain body language and we have to learn to understand it and respect it.”

Part of the Dogz R Uz mandate also includes giving back to the community: the organization sponsors two low-income children for the lunch program sessions and donates 10 per cent of the proceeds from registration fees back to the school hosting the program. Another 10 per cent goes to animal rescue groups they support.

The children participating in the Dogz R Uz lunchtime activity received their program completion certificates last week, and Bottomley said some of them might even have something more to look forward to.

“Some of the kids have said they wanted a dog,” she said. “And now, they said their parents have told them, if they pass the course, they’ll consider it.”

For more information on Dogz R Uz, visit www.dogzruz.org or call 514-433-8045.