Los Angeles Animal Rescue Of The Week: K9 Connection

K9 Connection is an LA-based animal rescue program that helps both animals and young members of the local community. Katherine Beattie and Pat Sinclair founded the program in 2004 after meeting as volunteers for another humane education program. Inspired by the bond they saw between at-risk youth and dogs, the two researched the few programs they could find around the country and established an animal rescue program of their own that would pair eight at-risk students with eight shelter dogs. K9 Connection now conducts seven three-week programs a year and checks in monthly with all alumni.

According to co-founder Katherine Beattie, participants "meet five days a week for two hours a day, and during the course of the program the students train the dogs in basic obedience [with training techniques developed by lead trainer and adviser Lynn Medlin] with the goal of making the dogs more adoptable. At the end of each three-week program we have a graduation celebration where the students show what the dogs have learned and then make oral presentations to the audience before receiving their diplomas." The one student, one dog ratio and the long-term follow up the founders have with their students is unique to the K9 connection.

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