PAWSitively Youth: A Guidebook about Dogs for Community Outreach Leaders (NRAES 180)

This 97 page publication (NRAES-180) was originally published by the Natural Resource, Agriculture, and Engineering Service (NRAES, previously known as the Northeast Regional Agricultural Engineering Service), a multi-university program in the Northeast US disbanded in 2011. Plant and Life Sciences Publishing (PALS) was subsequently formed to manage the NRAES catalog. Ceasing operations in 2018, PALS was a program of the Department of Horticulture in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at Cornell University. PALS assisted university faculty in publishing, marketing and distributing books for small farmers, gardeners, land owners, workshops, college courses, and consumers.PAWSitively Youth: A Guidebook about Dogs for Community Outreach Leaders provides science-based information for those interested in learning more about the responsibilities and pleasures of dog ownership. Behavior, anatomy, health, nutritional needs, and feeding regimes are discussed. Overviews of breed characteristics, home and travel safety, community concerns, and dog sports are included. The book is a self-directed learning guide intended for use by a teen or adult leader or by an individual that wants to learn more about dogs. Leaders can use the book or individual chapters to develop educational programs for children older than 10 years or community members interested in learning more about dogs. Fourteen group activities explore such concepts as nutrition, first aid, breed characteristics, dog sports, and career opportunities. Each activity includes a list of needed items and suggested ways to implement it. Activities are designed with youth development principles and experiential learning models in mind. It is not necessary to own a dog to participate in the activities. A group or an individual can choose which chapters to review based on their interests. It is not necessary to read previous chapters to understand later chapters. The book will be useful in informal and formal educational environments such as 4H, after-school programs, animal shelter outreach programs, big brothers and sisters, boys and girls clubs, boy scouts, and girl scouts. The book includes 33 illustrations, 14 activities, six tables, and a glossary. Featured are ten pencil drawings showing various behaviors. They were drawn by the winner of a state-wide youth drawing contest in New York State