Shelter Me

- Boomer, where are you, Boy?

- Boomer?

- Sometimes the unthinkable happens.

But with the help of Love Lost and its pet image recognition software, you can upload your pet's photo to our national database.

It's open to all.

So whether you lose or find a pet, Love Lost can help reunite families.

At Love Lost we believe pets belong at home with those who love them.

Petco Love Lost.

- Hi, I am Kristin Chenowith.

From years of working on Broadway screen and concert stages across the globe, I've always been inspired by the power of kindness.

Love and kindness can be seen every day at a shelter in Los Angeles where a unique training program gives second career chances to people struggling through difficult times.

(dramatic music) We'll share a story where people are given a second chance by learning new career skills that also help shelter pets find loving homes.

(dramatic music) - This program is literally about second chances.

For pets and people.

- That helping the pet find the best version of itself starts with us finding the best version of ourselves.

- The academy is bringing me hope.

- I'm so excited to be a part of this episode of "Shelter Me."

For people and pets, hope is just a good dog grooming away.

(dramatic music) (group cheering and clapping) (dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) (cheerful music) (cheerful music continues) - My name is Chris Jackson.

I am the founder and CEO of West Coast Grooming Academy.

(cheerful music) We're the only school in California right now that can officially say, Dog Grooming Certification Program.

(cheerful music) We want to be able to take people who wanna work with pets and offer a solution where they come in, they would learn just like you would go to a barber college.

We teach them how to be a dog groomer and when they're done and they get certified, then they go off and get a job.

(cheerful music) I just came up to say hi.

See how you all are doing.

Also, I wanted to let you know, Huber, we have our new class starting today, and you'll be doing the introduction with them.

- Awesome, yeah.

- Awesome.

- Now just clean that out.

Okay.

See those divots in there.

- But what makes West Coast Grooming Academy so special is that this program is literally about second chances.

For pets and people.

I opened the school with the thought that I could help people who wanted to work with pets, and I wanted to somehow do that and get dogs out of shelters.

That was my mission from day one.

(light music) Last year, we had about 80 students that were part of West Coast Grooming Academy.

That was before we had a scholarship partnership.

This year, we're looking at hitting 180 students, and a hundred of those are coming from Michelson Found Animals, a philanthropist foundation, that they basically take people who want to become dog groomers or work in the pet field and they pay the full scholarship.

- We want to provide the opportunity for individuals who might be facing financial or access barriers, whether it's homelessness, former foster youth, LGBT youth, formerly incarcerated individuals, and we provide them with a 12-week training program with West Coast Grooming Academy and, you know, really just wanna make sure we're setting them up for success.

(light music) - My name is Patrick.

I've been here for about three months.

(light music) Yeah, I've had quite a few challenges here and there.

I wanna say my first one or two weeks in class I had a big struggle and that kind of set me back a little bit.

- Patrick started out as somebody who is currently facing homelessness and throughout his experience in grooming school, he actually was between housing.

(light music) And he persevered and he stayed in school and that's really hard to do and I'm super proud of him.

- I'm really looking forward to graduation.

(light music) (cheerful music) - I'm here to meet up with Heather.

She'll be bringing in our new class of students.

This will be their first day and we'll be showing 'em around the facility and the pets they're gonna be working with.

So this facility is called Wallis Annenberg PetSpace, and it's an educational community center.

These dogs are actually coming from shelters, they're coming from foster groups.

And we have a huge system here where we have trainers train 'em, and we have a vet that takes care of their vet needs and then you guys will be learning how to groom.

So it's a great partnership and you guys will be working with these pets soon.

- You know, I come from a low income family, but I don't really have the time to go to school and go to work.

So, the fact that they're providing this program for us for free is amazing.

And I'm really grateful for the opportunity.

- Over here is our groom room upstairs, our upstairs groom room.

These guys will be graduating in a week and pretty soon this is where you all will be learning as well.

(light music) - My name is Alicia Moody and I'm a student here at West Coast Grooming Academy.

I've been a student here for two months now and have about three more weeks to go until I graduate.

(light music) The academy is bringing me hope in a time in which some would consider real dark.

You have to walk in someone else's shoes to understand.

No one would look at me and would think homeless.

No one would look at me and say, or think that, I've slept in my car for weeks at a time.

Even recently.

I've always been self-sufficient.

I have a daughter, I'm a single parent.

You know, I'm maintaining.

So I'm actually at a long-term facility, you know, hotel.

You can say, it's a hotel is what it is.

(somber music) I'm what they call like the new homeless.

Like, I do have a job, I am working, but it's still challenging trying to keep up, you know, rents and bills and take care of my daughter.

(somber music) - Alicia did share with me that she had gone through depression and that she had been formally homeless and was sort of working on building back her life.

And I think it's really amazing when our students are in that sort of phase of reentry.

(somber music) - No, it is what it is.

At the same time, I know things are gonna get better.

I know there's no way I can lose.

I believe the connection is the dogs.

Dogs bring people joy.

(somber music) With all of the hardship you have, you still have this furry face that's just loving you unconditional.

And I think when you allow yourself to love a dog, oh, it is just amazing.

And I wanna feel like that's what's getting me through.

- You're getting rid of this right here.

You're just gonna make it into a nice clean line right here, right here.

- This way, it doesn't matter.

- It really doesn't matter.

You can use it in any way.

- Okay.

- I love Alicia.

She's one of those people that learns by just looking like if I just tell her do this, she does it.

There you go.

You got it.

From day one.

You know, I knew that she was going to be really special.

Hey.

- Huber is our head instructor for West Coast Grooming Academy and he is actually one of the best groomers in the industry.

He's been grooming for more than 40 years, is actually a show groomer.

He's won, Groomer Has It.

And he just recently won "Haute Dog" on HBO.

(light music) - So the course is about a month online and that's where they do all their academic learning.

So they're learning things on nutrition and health and sanitation and things like that, as well as different dog breeds and, you know, all the characteristics that come with those different dog breeds.

And then once their hands-on portion is ready to start, then they all come here and they're here two days a week for 12 weeks.

(light music) - And personally speaking, I think he has so much wonderful knowledge to share.

- Welcome.

Let me tell you, it is a great honor to have you guys here.

It's gonna be our pleasure to teach you as much as we can in 12 weeks.

Okay?

It's always very exciting to see new faces.

I wanna let you guys know that, you know, once you enter that door, this is a happy place.

Being a teacher to these students.

My reward is giving them a tool for life.

We start 'em very slow.

We teach 'em work ethics.

We teach 'em safety.

We teach 'em sanitation.

They learn how to clean ears.

They learn how to do nails.

(nail sander whirring) And for you.

- Thank you.

- Okay.

- We're a couple.

We hope to gain experience in this grooming school.

Hope to get some business experience and hopefully open up our own shop.

Maybe a mobile grooming.

- [Huber] I treat 'em with love, I treat 'em with respect.

- [Student] And do it with my finger nails as well?

Or is it mostly hands?

- No, with your fingertips.

- My fingertips, okay.

- Yeah.

And people respond well to that.

I think this group is gonna be amazing.

Who's next?

All right.

(light music) (dogs barking) (light music) - I'm Gabrielle Amster.

I'm the director of the Wallis Annenberg PetSpace.

One of our primary missions is to adopt out pets to our community.

And we bring pets in from our partner shelters who are mostly located in the city and county of Los Angeles.

And those shelters are generally populated, quite densely populated with pets.

(light music) And so our goal is to bring animals here that we can so that those shelters can make more space.

And have more room for the animals that they're bringing in.

Right now, we're focusing on animals that do need a little bit more extraordinary care because we have the resources to provide medical support and maybe lift that extra burden off of our partner shelters.

- So he's been here for a few days.

Our medical staff did a skin scraping to see what was going on.

- Yeah.

- And they found that he was positive for Demodectic mange.

- Okay.

- [Shelter Employee] So definitely something that you guys could work with, I'm sure.

- Oh, yeah.

- Very friendly boy.

- When you bring in a shelter pet to your life, you're serving the greater good.

But also I feel like it's with human beings.

When animals have experiences out there in the world, they become complex, interesting creatures.

And then you get to share your lives with them and learn about them and be a part of all that.

- So she was turned in by her owners because they said that she was being destructive inside the home.

They had two other small children in the house.

And they said that she was real gentle around them.

- Absolutely.

It's nice to know that she is good with kids.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- Definitely to her advantage.

And she was matted, her fur was bad.

She was underweight.

And so we thought, "Well, we have two benefits to bringing Cassie to PetSpace."

And one of them is West Coast Grooming, who could potentially manage her fur, which was not great.

And also we can fatten her up and she's a quite adoptable dog (light music) - Come on, Gucci.

Up, up, good boy.

My costar, Gucci, is a pit baby.

(water streaming) Good boy.

Come in every Saturday and Sunday and learn the hands-on, which is actually working with a dog.

Look at you.

(Alicia laughs) You wouldn't even know that he came from a shelter and he had bad skin.

He's such a good dog.

And sometimes a lot of these dogs are, you know, are overlooked because they look, you know, don't look healthy and all they need is a good bath and some love and they'll be great dogs.

And to see a dog like that in the shelter, this is what I wanna do.

Like, I wanna help him get a home.

And if it means coming in and bathing him and getting his skin right, then that's what I want do.

Good boy.

You gotta feel much better now.

- Hello.

- Hi, there.

- Hello.

- So this is Cassie.

She's six months old.

And she was an owner's surrender at the East Valley shelter.

So I think we need to take some of this hair down so that way she feels good.

And then that way, she can look cute and get a home.

- Jess is a pre-vet, so she's able to take the vision of grooming and bringing the world of dogs and people together.

- We are here to teach people to groom dogs, but we're also here to reach and find the compassion inside of our students.

If they don't care about the dogs, then they're not gonna make it as a groomer.

So we wanna make sure that they're always leading with their heart.

So we lead by example.

- [Emily] Yeah, I just can't believe this dog's a surrender.

- So cute.

Look how mellow she is.

- I know.

- Can't believe it.

We're gonna fix you up and hook you up with a pretty haircut.

- My name is Emily.

I'm 28 years old and I am a scholarship student at West Coast Grooming Academy.

Oh, she's very dirty.

She's got lots of mats too.

I'm eight weeks into school right now and I graduate this month.

Yeah, it's been a while, I think, since this dog's had a bath.

There's like dirt balls and little mats.

I've learned how to bathe the dog properly, do other things for the dog, like cleaning the ears, claws, stuff like that.

(light music) - Emily is another one of our students and she came to us, kind of lost.

- I have been struggling with drug addiction for about 10 years and probably my about 10th time in a treatment center.

I really thought this was just not the life that I want to be living.

This is not what I think that I'm meant to be on this earth for.

- She was just looking for direction.

So when she came here, she found out that she really enjoys doing this and she's excited, you know, and there's a light now.

- This is a really, really good sweet dog.

Okay.

You don't get scared.

- These students, they're getting the golden ticket.

You know, they're getting a foundation to come and cover their tuition costs for them, which is $7,000, which is out of reach for a lot of people.

- [Instructor] So look, you see all these mats, Emily?

- Yes.

- They're kind of loose.

These are gonna be kind of easy to brush out.

- So we have quite a few instructors these days.

I'm happy to say that I've trained most of them with the exception of Huber.

- Okay, so she's a puppy.

Like you said, we're always gonna go really slow and gentle at their pace.

Usually, my recommendation when owners bring puppies, I always tell 'em, take it easy.

We're gonna see what the dog is gonna allow us to do 'cause sometimes it ends up traumatizing them and then they relate grooming to a bad experience.

- Yeah.

- The puppies, you always want to take it really slow with them.

(cheerful music) - Hey.

(cheerful music) Hi.

Hello.

(cheerful music) Yeah.

(cheerful music) - You guys.

Did you get all the matting?

- Yep.

- Wow.

Good job.

- Good.

- She's a lot better.

- You know, my experience with Emily, seeing the transformation and seeing her, you know, like absorbing the knowledge that, you know, Mario and me, we're giving them this is really, really humbling, you know, to see how they go from a point of nothing to graduation.

Okay, so, good job you guys.

I'm just gonna jump in and I'm gonna teach you how to do the face.

Okay?

- Okay.

- Let's see.

Let's do a teddy bear.

Why am I a good groomer?

Well, that's a good question.

You know, like, I've never asked myself that question.

I do this with passion.

I create sculptures with hair.

It's called a teddy bear because at the end, it should resemble a little teddy bear.

Nice and round, okay?

I'm very familiar with different techniques.

I love scissors.

I have so many scissors, it's not even funny.

And I love the animals.

I love the animals.

(light music) And the fact that we're contributing for those dogs to get their forever home, it's a very noble work.

- All right, Cassie, and now we're ready to get put for adoption.

How's that, huh?

You know, this is a very unique experience, what we are doing here.

At times, you know, I feel like we are those dogs, you know, that are waiting.

(light music) Waiting for a second chance.

You know, we're doing that to people.

We're doing that to the animals.

It's a win-win, you know?

Emily, you did such a good job.

- Thank you.

- It's a good job.

- Thank you very much.

- One of the biggest rewards is that my passion and my love for animals is contagious.

- You're gonna find such a good home, Cassie.

- She definitely is, she's very cute.

- She's such an adorable puppy.

- Every single thing in my life is different.

I have so much more hope and optimism today that, you know, I can get through and I believe that the struggles that I have gone through, I can help other people.

That's how I like to look at it today.

(light music) - Okay.

So West Coast Grooming took Cassie.

They took away all her mats, they groomed her, they bathed her, they made her incredibly presentable.

Woo, good girl!

(light music) (toy squeaking) (light music) She found a forever home almost immediately after being made available.

(light music) And we know that she's doing pretty well.

(light music) We had just finished up our day at East Valley.

We had pulled about four dogs and we're getting ready to head back to PetSpace.

- [Rescuer] Shotgun!

(van door slamming) - And noticed a truck had pulled up with a kennel full of Pomeranian type mixed dogs in the back, and they were ready to drop 'em off.

The owners of those dogs knew that they weren't able to care for them and they were surrendering them.

So we thought to ourselves, let's go back and look for those in the next day or two and see if it's something that we can do to help.

Once they were fully surrendered, we went and pulled those four dogs and brought them to PetSpace.

(cheerful music) - Yeah, it is harder for dogs that come from a home and then in the shelter, so.

She's just nice.

It's like having a home and then all of a sudden someone throws you out.

It's like new surroundings.

It can make anyone depressed, huh?

This is where the magic happens, I think.

- Absolutely.

- So, I think you're good.

- I think she looks good.

- Look at her smile.

I think she have a smile.

(light music) - Our program has given a lot of people hope, and it's given a lot of people a solution.

Angel was one of our first students.

He actually came from a jail program where he was released from jail on a work release type of program.

- I got out of jail last year, February 18th, of 2021.

I went to a halfway home.

And I began my journey there.

- He came in, you know, having spent some time in prison and he was a little rough around the edges and he really had to do a lot of work to take to the opportunity.

- He had struggles, but he didn't give up and he followed his heart and stuck with it.

And now, Angel's a rockstar.

- As soon as he graduated, he got a great job.

(light music) - I got here and I just walked up the steps and I told him like, "Hey, I'm a dog groomer."

I started showing him my portfolio and you know, they liked it.

And they're like, "How long you been grooming?"

I was like, "Yo, I just graduated from school."

- It was an interesting interview because about halfway through, he stopped and he goes, "Well, I got something to share with you."

And I said, "Okay."

And he said, "I'm just newly out of prison."

And I looked at him, I said, "Okay, I'm not interested where you've been.

I'm interested in where you're going."

- 10, 11 months ago, I had this vision, right?

To do something with my life that would make a difference.

And today, I'm actually doing it.

My name's Angel.

I'm the first student to graduate from the MIPP program.

And it wasn't easy.

I've learned for me that I can't do something for somebody else because if I do, I'm gonna mess it up.

For me, it's like, if I can't help myself, then I can't help anyone else.

- Just hearing his story, I was emotional.

I understood where he was coming from, but to see where he is now.

But I can definitely relate to doing it for yourself.

- Yes.

- I've always done for my daughter.

This is the first time for me.

- Yeah.

- [Alicia] And I'm happy.

- Yeah.

- It's like I had no idea of how much happiness I would have choosing something for me.

If he can do it, I absolutely can do it.

But I definitely commend him to keep going.

- I just want to thank all y'all for, you know, being here and really sticking to it.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, you guys are only few weeks away from actually following your dreams, right?

- [Alicia] Thanks for sharing.

(group clapping) - We're hoping that we can find a lot more Angels out there that we can change their lives and offer them an opportunity to have the blessing to work with animals.

- Our West Coast Grooming Academy is definitely like family.

They really care, you know?

So if this is something you wanna do, you wanna pay it forward, give it back.

You know, this is definitely the place you want to be at.

(upbeat music) - They're graduating.

They did it.

They survived the 12 weeks.

Congratulations.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- We're here to celebrate their success and their graduation.

(upbeat music) Kind of overwhelmed with emotion watching this.

Like, I remember when it was just me and a couple of students and now we have so many supporters and partners and so many people that are here trying to make a difference.

And to see that, actually gives me a certain level of hope I never had before.

- [Announcer] Patrick Holly.

(graduates cheering and clapping) - Every single time one of my students graduates, I feel like I just graduated again.

(upbeat music) And today, I get to celebrate that 12 times all at once.

I couldn't be happier.

- Give a big round of applause for our graduating class.

(people cheering and clapping) (upbeat music) - This is what I'm working for.

You go for 12 weeks with these people and, you know, like we just become a little family.

Then they graduate.

And guess what?

Tomorrow, I have a new class.

(Huber laughs) And do it all over again.

(upbeat music) - I'm proud of you for sticking through all these months of class and waking up early on the weekend after working all week and just sticking to it.

- Aw, thank you.

Oh, yes.

(upbeat music) It's all come together.

I started working at South LA Shelter.

I'm a groomer.

West Coast Grooming Academy has allowed me to dream.

Like their mission matched my passion.

And here I am.

- Hey, Alicia, how are you?

Welcome on your first day here at the shelter.

- My definition for successes is creating happiness and positivity and compassion and being able to make a living doing that.

- Okay.

I'm ready.

(upbeat music) - I use the smaller leash.

- Yeah.

She's gonna get a home real soon.

I'm gonna make sure of it.

- What I love most about West Coast Grooming Academy is what it's doing to people's lives after they leave.

I don't think I've ever seen anything like that where people just have such a huge change.

- So we like to say that helping the pet find the best version of itself starts with us finding the best version of ourselves.

- I'm really proud of you, Jess.

I'm proud of everything you just did.

- I'm proud of you too.

- High five.

- Yeah.

- Bam.

(light music) - Petco Love Lost.

A national lost and found pet database can help.

Using image recognition technology so every pet can be back where they belong, - Oh my baby - home with the families that love them.

Petco Love Lost.