Dogs can help us in many ways. By guaranteeing a different life, for example, to minors who have been through difficult periods and have committed offences of varying degrees of seriousness. It is in the spirit of the benefits that four-legged friends can bring to people that the two projects of the non-profit foundation Cave canem in Rome are rooted. A different way of drawing on the unconditional love of a dog and the feeling of mutual trust that develops between dog and human.

Dogs and Cave canem

The Cave canem foundation was established with the aim of fostering the evolution of the relationship between human beings and animals. It is a female-led social enterprise born from the friendship between two women, Adriana Possenti and Federica Faiella. Both come from backgrounds in the animal welfare world, in the social sector, and in non-profit organisations helping abandoned dogs and cats. In recent months, the foundation has launched two important projects.

The first, "Cambio rotta", was created to support abandoned animals by involving young people who have previously committed offences of various kinds and have been admitted to the institution of "messa alla prova" (probationary suspension of proceedings). "During this phase, the trial is suspended and the minors take part in the project by carrying out socially useful work or educational activities," explains Federica Faiella.

Participants are selected on the basis of a theoretical and practical training course to acquire basic skills and knowledge in animal care. At the same time they carry out socially useful work at the kennels, working with animals that have a past of abandonment and mistreatment. "There are therefore moments of socialisation, play and walks in the open air. The young people also take care of maintenance at the kennels or the cat shelter (repainting the enclosures, cutting the grass, for example), carrying out activities aimed at improving the quality of life of animals that are forced to live in a shelter while waiting for a special family to come forward," adds Faiella.

The project involves the joint collaboration of Cave canem, the Centro giustizia minorile Lazio, Abruzzo e Molise, the Ufficio servizi sociali per i minorenni del Lazio, the Tribunale per i minorenni di Roma and the canile Valle Grande.

Dogs and young people: a perfect symbiosis

Cave canem's other project based on inclusion in the human-animal relationship is "Fuori dalle gabbie junior", in collaboration with the Istituto penitenziario minorile di Casal Palocco in Rome. "There are 18 young detainees who will be involved in a theoretical and practical training course inside the prison as kennel operators, receiving a certificate of professional training. All of this is aimed at carrying out an activity that fills the time of the sentence with constructive content and at acquiring skills that can potentially be spent when re-entering the world of work once the sentence has been served," explains Adriana Possenti.

And, with this in mind, among Cave canem's aims there is one important objective: "We want to be a reliable point of contact for the community, a 'facilitating' body for institutions. And we want to respond in a constructive, project-based way to the critical issues of the area. Not just words, therefore, but also deeds. In the first two years of the foundation's existence we have created 12 co-design models through which we have generated value for 1,463 dogs, involving more than 300 people," adds Federica Faiella.

All proceeds from Cave canem will be reinvested to fund new projects for the foundation. "Our work in favour of those dogs with a difficult past, who over time have shown violent reactions or manifestations of passive fear such as phobia, remains one of the foundation's purposes. These are the subjects of whom dog trainers speak as having a 'sentence with no end', destined to remain shut in enclosures, away from everyone. For them we have a clear idea: to help them overcome the behavioural difficulties they have shown and to guarantee a high-quality life, even within a kennel setting," concludes Possenti.

Men and dogs, then, very often united in the same condition of being forgotten and excluded by an increasingly less inclusive society, who manage to come together in a shared destiny made up above all of new opportunities, togetherness and affection, in the name of the age-old friendship that has bound humans to their four-legged companions since the beginning of time.