Convicts Train Service Dogs for Veterans

In prisons across the United States, a program that have male and female inmates training service dogs for veterans and children is meeting with acclaim and continues to grow.

The Puppies Behind Bars program provides dogs to inmates, who train them from 8 weeks to 18 months to serve disabled veterans affected by PTSD and traumatic brain injury. According to Gloria Gilbert Stoga, President, Puppies Behind Bars, Inc.,

Puppies Behind Bars, Inc. formally came into existence in July 1997, and we initiated the program at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in November 1997. We began with five puppies in the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, New York State's only maximum-security prison for women, and now work in six correctional facilities raising approximately 90 puppies.

When a dog graduates from "Dog Tags: Service Dogs for Those Who've Served Us', the Puppies Behind Bars' program at the Mid-Hudson Correctional Facility in Warwick, it knows 87 distinct commands. The Hearing Ear Dog Program (now NEADS), began in October, 1976 on the Lenox, Massachusetts campus of Holliston Junior College. According to their website, NEADS began the Prison PUP Partnership in 1998. Inmates foster and train Service Dog puppies for one year before the dogs return to the NEADS campus for advanced training and partnership with their new owner. There are currently puppies being raised by inmates in five facilities in three states (Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut) under NEADS’ Prison PUP Partnership. In West Virginia on Saturday November 14, the Paws 4 People foundation graduation was held at the West Virginia University's Erickson Alumni Center on Saturday Afternoon. The organization gave eight dogs to owners in need of a loving friend. The eight dogs were trained by inmates at the Hazelton Prison. Paws 4 People refers to its inmate trained dogs as 'SlammerDogZ.'

Paws 4 People

Paws 4 People refers to its inmate trained dogs as SlammerDogZ

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Other programs train dogs to work with Improvised Explosive Device (IED) detection teams, as drug detection dogs and as search dogs. Advocates of these programs argue that the benefits are mutual or symbiotic. The supply of assistance dogs is enhanced when they can be trained by inmates. At the same time the inmates benefit from the interaction with the dogs and the trainee instructors, the sense of responsibility that comes with raising a puppy, and the sense of achievement that they get when the dog moves on to advanced training or a new owner.