HKDR believes that education is a key solution to animal abandonment and abuse.

Our 10-plus years of experience in the field of dog rescue work provides a solid base to support our efforts in teaching and promoting responsible pet ownership, correct attitudes towards dogs and their welfare, and positive reinforcement, reward-based training for all companion animals.

As part of this mission, our Education & Training Centre was opened in 2013, conveniently located across the street from the Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre. This small venue is used for a variety of workshops and classes, all of which are designed to help improve dog-human understanding and so reduce the number of pets being abandoned. Since starting our education programme, we have already reached several thousands of dog lovers, students, adults, schools and organisations.

HKDR believes in only force-free, reward-based, positive reinforcement training techniques that are designed to get the most out of the bond between you and your dog. Positive methods based on encouragement and reward raise confident and calm dogs, which is preferable regardless of a dog’s age, breed, behavioural problems or past history.

Training should also be based on a thorough and science-proved understanding of dog physical and behavioural characteristics, body language and learning mechanism, in order to address the underlying reason of undesired behaviours.

Aversive methods and tools such as yelling, kicking, choking, rollover or shock/pinch/choke collar are strictly forbidden on our dogs. Such training methods create fearful and insecure dogs whose warning signs before biting (such as growling and barking) are often suppressed, so they tend to cope with their fear and insecurity with aggression in form of a direct bite.

All HKDR adopters have access to a fully qualified, US-trained Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA®) who can answer any question relating to behavioural or training issues. Please contact our Education & Training Manager at education@hongkongdogrescue.com for your training needs.