RPO Human/Canine/Feline Team, and Daymon Haskins at an October RPO session at Arrowhead Elementary School in Upper Marlboro

We call our humane education outreach effort "RPO," which stands for Responsible Pet Ownership education. Since it began three years ago, PAW's RPO program has reached several thousand young people in Prince Georges, Montgomery, Baltimore and other counties in the region.

As part of the free sessions, volunteers visit classrooms and community centers with crowd-friendly canine and feline partners. Each session, which lasts from 45 minutes to an hour, includes interactive, age-appropriate lessons about being responsible, treating animals kindly, taking care of a pet's health, exercise, training and other needs, and protecting oneself when approached by an unfamiliar animal outside. The volunteers also demonstrate safe, intelligent ways to interact with dogs.

Our volunteers help students learn what it takes to care for a pet. For many youths, this may be the only forum in which they learn why it's so important to keep a dog on-leash when walking outdoors, regardless of the images of unleashed pets in the movies. Attendees learn why pet owners need to take their animals to the veterinarian...feed them healthy foods...keep them safe...and teach them good behavior. They also learn about spaying and neutering, a simple one-time act of kindness that will help reduce the tragedy of pet overpopulation.

Another objective is to convey and foster attitudes of compassion, caring and respect for life. This effort ties in with character education programs that many schools have adopted -- and is particularly timely in light of recent events.

Our RPO Human/Canine/Feline Team, and Oluyemi Ojo, age 7, at Arrowhead Elementary School.

Our canine and feline companions help engage the crowds, while enjoying all of the petting they get from the children.

During a typical session, we organize the presentation around the letters of the word RESPONSIBLE:

R = Responsibility for health care
E = Exercise
S = Spay and Neuter
P = Patience and Positive Attitude
O = Obedience training
N = Nutrition
S = Safety
I = I.D. tag
B = Brush
L = Leash
E = Effort Everyday

If you know a teacher, community leader, scout leader or anyone else who might like to host a free RPO/humane education session, just let us know and we'll make arrangements with our volunteers and their animal partners.