Women and Foster-Trainers.
Paid skilled work, real homes, and the people at the heart of HeartDogs.
The HeartDogs model is built on a deliberate choice: women in rural India, with no formal training background, as the people who prepare assistance and therapy dogs. This is why - and what it means.
Most assistance dog programmes rely on professional trainers in urban facilities. HeartDogs took a different path. Each dog in Cohort 1 lives with and is trained by a woman in rural Karnataka - a paid foster-trainer, or Hero. She is not a volunteer. She is not helping out. She is doing skilled work, for pay, that contributes directly to a dog that will eventually support a person with a disability.
The choice is deliberate on two levels. First, training a dog in a real home - with the rhythms, noise, visitors and unpredictability of domestic life - produces a more adaptable, confident working dog than facility-based training can. Second, creating paid skilled employment for women in rural communities is itself part of what HeartDogs is building. The dog, the woman and the person with a disability are all part of the same outcome.
Understanding the foster-trainer model.
Three articles that explain who the HeartDogs foster-trainers are, what the role involves, and how it connects to the wider mission.
The women in rural Karnataka are why HeartDogs works.
Without the Heroes, there are no dogs. Without the dogs, there are no placements. The foster-trainer model is the foundation of everything HeartDogs builds.