The Underdog Project

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The Underdog Project

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A registered NPO connecting underprivileged youth and shelter dogs to inspire collective healing.

The Underdog Project is a Non-Profit Organisation, working with both at risk youth and shelter dogs, based at the DARG animal shelter premises in Hout Bay, Cape Town, South Africa. Our objective is to assist at-risk teenagers to overcome social and emotional problems, and learn valuable life skills, through the training of shelter and rescue dogs; in turn teaching these dogs the skills to improve their chances of adoption.

02/11/2026

Rocky and his new trainer had the best session together 🐾

We were blown away to see how calm and focused Rocky was throughout his training. It was the perfect example of how some people’s natural affinity with dogs is reflected in the way the dogs respond to them.

We are excited to watch this connection develop even more as the weeks go on ❤️

29/10/2026

Meet SPLISH 🐾 he’s one of our SPCA UnderDOGs on our Paws & Potential programme. When he joined us on his first session it was next to impossible to get him to focus. He had no idea what we were trying to do and we don’t blame him for his confusion. But three sessions down the line, he is so locked in!

When we bring him out of his kennel and pair him with one of our youth, he knows exactly what is happening and is thriving in his training. It is so rewarding for his trainer (and us!) to see his progress and we get excited to teach him new tricks each week. In the video, you can see him learning to “target” 🔵

On top of that, he loves cuddles and scratches (which our youth love to give him too) so we include those regularly during his training of course ❤️

23/10/2026

In case you’ve ever wondered what our space looks like, this is The Underdog Project classroom! ❤️ It has welcomed hundreds of youth, greeted many, many dogs and has been the safe space for each and every one of them.

Our classroom transforms into a consistent, encouraging and kind space for both our youth & dogs every day, as we take them through humane education, life skills, and positive reinforcement clicker training. Everyone is allowed to show up exactly as they are, something that is not always possible in outside environments where protection and survival is always top of mind.

Inside, our team is always prepped with energy and unconditional acceptance, facilitating the human-animal connections that inspire collective healing among these two vulnerable groups.

We are so proud of what this organisation achieves every day!

To keep our organisation sustainable, we need you. Sign up as an Underdog 555 supporter now by following the link below. We’ll add your name to our supporter wall, and you’ll be making a huge difference in the lives of the youth & dogs we serve ❤️

https://underdogproject.org/the-underdog-555/

20/10/2026

Empathy is much more than simply understanding how someone else feels. It’s learning to recognise different perspectives and respond with compassion. For youth, this skill plays an important part in navigating various relationships and challenging environments, managing conflict, and developing a stronger sense of connection others. And what better way to develop empathy than alongside a dog?

Through their interactions with vulnerable shelter dogs, our youth have the opportunity to develop patience, recognise non-verbal cues, receive unconditional love and practice compassion. It’s one of the things that makes our programme so impactful. The human-animal connection is immensely powerful and we see it every day ❤️

09/10/2026

Our fantastic facilitator, Siya, doing what he does best! We’ve only worked with Browny for a handful of sessions now and his focus, skills and confidence have improved dramatically. A very clever doggo 🐾

Our team wishes you all a wonderful weekend Underdog Family! 🔅

07/10/2026

It’s already almost time for our October QUIZ NIGHT at Jack Black’s Taproom 🤓

Gather your favourite people (or just your smartest ones 😉) and join us for a super fun night of epic quiz questions and a lot of gees!

All proceeds from entry and luck draw tickets go towards funding our programmes with at-risk youth and shelter dogs so you’re doing a good deed by showing up 🐾

WhatsApp us (0728489892) or email [email protected] to secure your team a spot (max of 8 per team).

See you all there! 🍻

05/10/2026

The Underdog Project benefits both youth and dogs in many different ways. But today, we wanted to highlight one in particular and this photo captures it perfectly.

More often than not, dogs arrive at the shelter with too many negative experiences with people. This means that something as simple as someone reaching out their hand can be unsettling. But through our programme, they are taught to trust again and hands no longer trigger a fear response but are instead associated with love and affection.

Sometimes this trust builds quickly and other times it can take a good while, but as soon as we see the flinching stop or see them actively seeking out scratches, we know we’ve done our job. And we feel immensely proud that they were brave enough to trust humans again.

Shelter dogs truly do demonstrate the purest example of resilience ❤️

30/09/2026

The wonderful people from S&P Global came and joined us for a session recently but we did things a bit differently: our Peer Leaders ran the whole thing and gosh are we proud of them! True Underdog Ambassadors ❤️

Thank you so much to the S&P Global team for allowing our Peer Leaders the opportunity to share all about what we do and take you through our programme. Your energy and excitement to be with us was so wonderful! And thank you for choosing us as a recipient of a generous donation from S&P Global, it has made an immense difference to our project!

We look forward to having you visit us again soon 🐾

25/09/2026

Polly has become our master pivot-er!

Never before have our UnderDOGs grasped this trick as well as she has, and gosh how cute does she look too! Of course, it also takes a patient and encouraging human to help her get there. We’re so proud of these two ❤️

17/09/2026

EXCITING NEWS! 🐾

We have officially launched our Paws & Potential Pilot! This is a 13-week programme taking place at the Cape of Good Hope SPCA with a new group of youth from the surrounding community. This is the first step towards our mission of expanding our Underdog classroom, mobile-style!

We have been warmly welcomed by the incredible SPCA staff and have already created a little corner & safe space where we welcome our youth each week. The dogs we have met so far (Browny, Fran, Trevor & Adam!) are so sweet and are going to benefit so much from the confidence-building, socialisation, mental stimulation, and unconditional love our resilient youth will offer them.

We can’t wait to share our progress with you. What an exciting time for our organisation! Swipe to see our setup and our youth & dogs in action! ❤️

We cannot keep going and growing without people like you who believe in our cause. If you want to be part of this initiative and the work we’re doing, join our Underdog 555 family today! Find the link below ✨

https://underdogproject.org/the-underdog-555/

Address

Underdog Classroom, Lower Level DARG, Main Road
Hout Bay
7806

Telephone

+27728489892

Website

http://www.underdogproject.org/

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