Therapy Dogs and Visiting Pets
Pets in prisons and other animal facilitated rehabilitation programsThis Gig Harbor, Washington program occurs primarily inside the walls of the Washington State Corrections Center for Women where inmates reach out to help others by training special dogs to assist a disabled person. Volunteers currently assist by taking the dogs out into the community for important socialization training prior to placement.
Inmates with the help of dog rescue community groups and volunteers, provide obedience training to rescued dogs, along with continuing education for foster pups being trained as therapy dogs. Therapy dogs in training are about one-third of each class presently.
This Gardner, Massachusetts program, guided by NEADS (National Education for Assistance Dog Services), involves inmates of the the North Central Correctional Institution training assistance dogs.
This Oneida, Wisconsin program involves inmates at Sanger B Powers Correctional training assistance dogs.
This program in New York State's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility assigns puppies to the inmates at this maximum-security prison for women to be raised as guide dogs. Volunteer 'puppy sitters' take the dogs into their homes once or twice a month to expose them to things they won't experience in prison.
This Woodburn, Oregon program pairs juvenile offenders from the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility with dogs from local shelters and rescue groups. The students provide the dogs with obedience training to prepare the dogs for placement in permanent homes in the community
Pairing emotionally impaired youth with hard to adopt shelter dogs for positive dog training
Summer camp (week long)
On line certification in animal assisted therapy
Coming Soon - Animal Assisted Therapy Center
In this Fairfax, Virginia program juvenile offenders and youth at-risk learn compassion, respect and responsiblity in the process of socializing and interacting with rescued homeless dogs.
A program created to help students with behavior disorders learn to control their own behaviors by learning how to train dogs.
The Correctional Service of Canada published this detailed academic study of the use of animals in therapy and rehabilitation in the correctional setting.
This covers a variety of programs where inmates in prisons are training dogs.
This Arizona program is modeled after the The Washington’s Prison Pet Partnership Program.
A prison program in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area. Homeless dogs are trained by inmates for basic obedience .
A program in which prison inmates socialize and train shelter dogs to make them adoptable to the general public.
From the National Institute of Corrections this is an excellent resource for understanding how these programs work and gathering information to create a prison based pet facilitated therapy program.
Operates a project called Pawsitive Hearts, a 6-week obedience training project pairing at-risk kids with rescue dogs from a humane society. The dogs learn appropriate manners to help them get adopted, and the kids gain valuable self-confidence, a feeling of achievement, tools for teamwork and gain empathy for the animals and each other.
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Copyright © 1998-2003, Diane Blackman Created: May 11, 1998 Updated February 22, 2010