What is a Speckled Heart?
Early in 2021, I lost the love of my life, my truest companion, Benito. From the moment I met Benito, I knew his issues would be tough to navigate, but I loved him instantly. Despite vowing to take a break from fostering, the feeling in my heart outweighed my brain’s desire for repose. I found myself, once again, giving all my time and energy to a dog who, despite his issues- BECAUSE of his issues- pulled at each and every string I had.
In an effort to help him, I traveled to the ends of the earth (virtually) trying to ‘fix’ his severe behavior problems. This journey, and the many disappointing ends I met, made me acutely aware of how hard it is to find true solutions for behavior dogs. I learned that it is extraordinarily difficult to find trainers with the experience necessary to tailor a program for individual tough cases. To complicate matters, the cost of trainers who can do so, is hard for many to afford. For this reason, I chose to start a program where I could use the knowledge I had gained and pay it forward by providing free scholarships to behavior dogs and their companions.
Scholarship recipients in the Speckled Hearts Project receive an initial consultation, regular weekly sessions, at-home training plans, equipment, nutritional supplements, and behavioral enrichment at no cost. By doing this, we hope to not only provide unique, quality training, but also eliminate the burden of financially covering such comprehensive training and care.
Every member of the Speckled Hearts Team has been in your shoes. We know the physical and psychological distress owners and advocates of behavior dogs experience. We can’t promise we will make it easy, but we can promise we will lessen the burden. We love dogs and we want these dogs to succeed just as badly as you do.
The Speckled Hearts Project doesn’t just focus on fixing specific behaviors, but also on creating opportunities to build confidence and stability. We are after ‘happy brain’ opportunities and seek out enrichment and activities that will help the dogs to find joy. We focus on relationship-building and trust as a key part of the Speckled Hearts experience. For example, you may see our participants taking part in private swim and agility lessons, or working with a socialization expert in addition to engaging in more traditional training like loose-leash walking, recall, and positive reinforcement around negative stimuli.
The Speckled Hearts program is available to dogs in adoptive or foster homes. Shelter dogs are eligible provided they have a dedicated advocate on board who is willing to do the work, as consistency and clarity are critical to their success.
Our program funding is entirely donation-based. Because of our amazing donors, we are able to provide unlimited guidance to these dogs and ensure that the Speckled Hearts team will be their partner for life. We deeply appreciate any financial or promotional support you are able to provide. This is a community effort and we are so excited to have you here.
And to Benito…thank you. For showing me the way. For allowing me to live out your legacy, again and again through these Speckled Hearts dogs.
This is for you.