Can Do Canines’ Prison Puppy Program Trains Service Dogs, Changes Lives
A Can Do Canines assistance dog goes through many phases as it trains for service. One step is to spend time training inside the prisons.
Can Do Canines partners with nine prisons in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Inmates can apply to host and train, and once accepted, get assigned a dog to train. Its been life-changing for the inmates, both current and former.
Matt and Jamie, two former inmates, stopped by the New Hope nonprofit to share their story with CCX News. They also got to play with some service dogs-in-training. Can Do Canines asked that they only be referred to by their first name for privacy reasons.
There, they demonstrated that nothing can turn your day around like a puppy. The two were cellmates at Jackson Correctional Facility in Wisconsin, and both signed up for the Prison Puppy Program.
“I would rather be shoved in that room with two dogs and Matt, than a bigger room with no dog,” Jamie reflected.
“Make Something Positive”
Some years after he was incarcerated, Jamie said he was transferred to the Jackson facility. After intake, he walked down and saw the puppy program at work.
“As soon as I walked down to that unit, you just feel a weight taken off your shoulders, with all those dogs running around and smiling,” Jamie said. “And big, tough, mean guys talking to puppies. It’s just a whole different atmosphere.”
Jamie eventually decided to sign up. He was reminded of something his best friend’s mom said the day of his crime.
“‘Make something positive come out of this. Don’t let it destroy you,'” Jamie recalled. “And when I heard about the dog program, I’d instantly seen it as a way to put some positivity back out there.”
Once he did sign up, Jamie recalls training six dogs. But he worked with and helped bring up countless others. He said he came out of prison with greater confidence and a positive outlook- – a “180-degree change” from who he was before. It’s something he fully credits to Can Do Canines.
Jamie runs one of the dogs-in-training through a command where she tucks under a chair.
Double Benefits
The Prison Puppy Program is in nine facilities in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and trains hundreds of dogs each year.
Program manager Lindy Luopa said it’s invaluable for the nonprofit, but she also sees benefits throughout the facilities.
“A dog brings life and joy into an environment that may be lacking in that,” Luopa explained.
Some facilities also do weaning programs, where the inmates help wean young puppies off its mother. In the “raiser programs,” like the ones Matt and Jamie partook in, Luopa said a dog typically spends four to eight months training. Then the dog goes to volunteer hosts and finishes up some more training before starting service for its clients at age 2 or 2 and a half.
Last year, 224 dogs went through the Prison Puppy Program throughout eight prisons.
Matt helped wean this Can Do Canine a few years back. On Thursday, they reunited with some practice training.
“Little Victories”
Jamie’s cellmate Matt also saw the power of the puppies. He trained even more dogs than Jamie, thinking of 14 off the top of his head. But he said he had a hand in caring for countless others.
He said the work changed his life.
“I didn’t have the great self esteem. And when I was training with these dogs, I was having small little victories. Little accomplishments that ultimately, without me really knowing it, was raising my self esteem,” Matt said.
He said it’s hard to name all the lessons the program taught him, but overall it made him more independent, positive and accomplished. That confidence helped him as he went through treatment and finished his sentence.
“The one thing I really knew nothing about was how this program was going to affect me,” Matt said.
Matt showed us a tattoo he has on his arm — of human and dog footprints walking side-by-side. He got it in honor of his trainees.
“Equal footing. It doesn’t really symbolize anything more than that we aren’t in charge of dogs,” Matt said. “We simply provide opportunities for them to get rewarded, and if they take it, they get the reward.”
The confidence and understanding is something both Matt and Jamie have carried out into the world after their release. That’s because the puppies helped turn their lives around.
Matt and Jamie were cellmates, and both trained dogs in the prison puppy program. Sometimes, they had two dogs in addition to themselves in their shared cell.
