A Program Aimed at Instilling Empathy

spcaLA has become nationally and internationally renowned for its Teaching Love and Compassion (TLC)™ program, a violence-prevention program that works with students and shelter animals to help break the cycle of violence.

Preventing Violence
Through intentional work with shelter dogs, students practice patience, compassion, and empathy. During classroom time, discussions and activities about topics such as: anger identification, conflict solving, empathetic choices, anti-bullying, and kindness towards others, take place. These topics help students identify their own assumptions, increase knowledge and positive attitudes towards animals, others and self, and overall increase empathetic attitudes.

Nurturing Compassion
This intensive program teaches students how to make choices that positively impact the animals and people in their lives. Using interactive classroom time and hands-on dog training, the TLC program helps students identify and break the cycle of violence by building self-esteem and increasing respect for all living creatures. As students work through conflicts and the challenges of performing as a group to train shelter dogs, they develop compassion, responsibility, teamwork, and patience.

The Program
TLC is a daily four-week afterschool program that offers lessons on empathy and compassion, positive dog training techniques, as well as anger identification and conflict resolution discussions. At the end of the session, TLC graduates share their newly developed skills and knowledge with their families, peers, administrators, and teachers through speeches and working together in groups to guide their shelter dog through an agility course.

TLC in Your Classroom
spcaLA partners with local school districts to bring TLC sessions to communities in need of our services. For more information about bringing TLC to your school, please email humaneeducation@spcaLA.com. Additionally, we offer the comprehensive TLC manual for purchase.