IN a prison environment they can be rough, tough, disobedient, boisterous and loud.
I'm not talking about the inmates but dogs who are being trained by prisoners.
For there's a brilliant scheme which pairs up pooches which need training with prisoners willing to take on the task.
The project was set up in 2002 by Debie Stevens in Colorado. Since then it has helped more than 9,000 dogs. Dog owners who haven't the time and/or the skill to train their dogs pay for prisoners to do it for them.
There are eight dog-training teams in the Colorado Correctional Industries Prison Trained K-9 Companion Program, which provides the outside community with trained dogs. Dogs live with “offenders” 24 hours a day. The prisoners teach them obedience skills and the dogs become socialised. This means they can then be adopted—or keep their homes.
Of the dogs who have gone through the training, about half were rescued from being put down at animal shelters. The scheme is paid for by adoption fees and by the owners who send their dogs to prison for a month of “boarding-in training” to correct behaviour issues.
But it's not only the dogs who benefit from the training, the prisoners, too, get a lot out of it.
“I’ve seen this program change a lot of prisoners,” said Christopher Vogt, who is one of the trainers. Vogt, who is serving a 48-year sentence for murder, said taking part had changed his life.
One of the dogs he trained was Skye who belonged to the prison governor, John Hickenlooper.
Talking about the prisoners, Mr Hickenlooper said: “To a person they all seemed like they were trying to get their lives back on track and training dogs was part of that process.”
Below is a video from the TV show Castaways, a documentary about the scheme. It tells Esther's story. It's from 2013 but similar stories are emerging every day.
I'm not talking about the inmates but dogs who are being trained by prisoners.
For there's a brilliant scheme which pairs up pooches which need training with prisoners willing to take on the task.
The project was set up in 2002 by Debie Stevens in Colorado. Since then it has helped more than 9,000 dogs. Dog owners who haven't the time and/or the skill to train their dogs pay for prisoners to do it for them.
There are eight dog-training teams in the Colorado Correctional Industries Prison Trained K-9 Companion Program, which provides the outside community with trained dogs. Dogs live with “offenders” 24 hours a day. The prisoners teach them obedience skills and the dogs become socialised. This means they can then be adopted—or keep their homes.
Of the dogs who have gone through the training, about half were rescued from being put down at animal shelters. The scheme is paid for by adoption fees and by the owners who send their dogs to prison for a month of “boarding-in training” to correct behaviour issues.
“I’ve seen this program change a lot of prisoners,” said Christopher Vogt, who is one of the trainers. Vogt, who is serving a 48-year sentence for murder, said taking part had changed his life.
One of the dogs he trained was Skye who belonged to the prison governor, John Hickenlooper.
Talking about the prisoners, Mr Hickenlooper said: “To a person they all seemed like they were trying to get their lives back on track and training dogs was part of that process.”
Below is a video from the TV show Castaways, a documentary about the scheme. It tells Esther's story. It's from 2013 but similar stories are emerging every day.
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