When Helping a Shelter Dog Inspires a Child to Be Kinder

Photo Credit: Cape of Good Hope SPCA via Facebook

The Cape of Good Hope’s latest programme is pairing at-risk youth with rescue dogs to cultivate lasting empathy – because sometimes helping a shelter dog helps a child too.

Cape Town, South Africa (07 September 2026) – Creating a kinder future for animals begins with inspiring empathy today. Recognising that lessons in empathy do not happen in a classroom, the Cape of Good Hope SPCA found that some of the most powerful lessons can happen beside a shelter dog.

The SPCA has partnered with The Underdog Project and CAFDA School of Skills on Paws & Potential for a programme that brings young people regarded as at risk from the CAFDA (Cape Flats Development Association) community together with dogs in their care.

Many shelter dogs experience the effects of confinement. Some become anxious, withdrawn or stressed, while others simply need more positive interaction, enrichment and time with people to help them build confidence.

Through The Underdog Project, participating children work directly with selected SPCA shelter dogs using compassionate, force-free methods. The programme combines dog training and enrichment with humane education, emotional literacy, creative reflection and conversations about communication, kindness, self-awareness and courage.

For the dogs, these sessions mean something incredibly important: time outside the kennel, attention, enrichment and trust. Through regular positive interaction, they are given opportunities to become more comfortable around people, reduce stress and practise behaviours that may ultimately help prepare them for adoption.

Photo Credit: Cape of Good Hope SPCA via Facebook

What’s more special, while the children are teaching the dogs, the dogs are teaching them too!

The programme is designed to help young participants develop greater empathy, confidence, emotional regulation and communication skills, while creating a safe space in which they can learn, connect and experience the responsibility of caring for another living being.

The six-month programme will have 10 young people participate in a structured 12-session dog-assisted learning journey, while 10 SPCA shelter dogs will receive regular interaction aimed at building trust, reducing stress and increasing adoptability.

The project will also provide facilitation and job readiness experience to young interns.

“It is a partnership built on a simple but powerful idea. When we teach a child to understand an animal, we are also teaching compassion. And when we give a shelter dog the patience, attention and positive experiences they need, we give that dog another opportunity to show people who they really are,” the SPCA shared.

The hope is that the impact will travel far beyond the SPCA’s shelter gates, with young people taking what they have learned about kindness, responsibility and humane treatment back into their homes and communities.