A
New Leash on Life
How
We Got Started
In
1990, my husband and I adopted a Labrador Retriever from
one of North America's most prestigious guide-dog schools,
Guiding Eyes for the Blind in Yorktown Heights, New York.
'Arrow' had been on his way to becoming a guide dog but
was released from the program for medical reasons. Upon
adopting Arrow, I began reading about the special breeding
and training that had gone into him and was amazed to discover
how much time, effort, love, and money ($25,000) is behind
each guide dog.
A
large part of the extraordinary effort that goes into
these special dogs comes from 'puppy raisers' -- individuals
or families who take specially bred puppies into their
homes when the pups are just eight weeks old and who
spend the next sixteen months teaching them basic
obedience skills and socializing them to enter the
world at large. Socializing the dogs is actually the
main component of a puppy raiser's task, for socialization
is what helps these dogs become confident. Confidence
is the most important trait for a guide dog to have,
but as it is not hereditary, it is the one trait which
cannot be bred into dogs. Dogs become confident by
being around human beings and by being introduced
to a variety of situations at a measured pace. After
sixteen months, the dogs leave their puppy raisers,
return to the guide-dog school from which they came,
and are given a series of tests to determine their
level of confidence. If they pass the tests, they
go on to five or six months of professional guide-dog
training.
Dr. Thomas Lane, a vet in Florida, thought that prison
inmates would make excellent puppy raisers, and started
the first guide-dog/prison program. Not only do inmates
have unlimited time to spend with the puppies, but
they benefit from the responsibility of being puppy
raisers in ways that are especially important to their
rehabilitation: they learn patience, what it is like
to be completely responsible for a living being, how
to give and receive unconditional love, and -- since
puppy raisers take classes and train the dogs together
-- how to work as a team.
After several months of research, I decided to leave
my job on New York Mayor Guiliani's Youth Empowerment
Services Commission and devote myself full-time to
founding a non-profit organization dedicated to training
prison inmates to raise puppies to be guide dogs for
the blind. 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 seven correctional facilities raising approximately
100 puppies.
The pups live in the cells with their primary raisers,
go to classes administered by Puppies Behind Bars
once a week, and are furloughed two or three weekends
a month to 'puppy sitters' who take the dogs into
their homes in order to expose them to things they
won't experience in prison. These can be as simple
as hearing doorbells or the sounds of a coffee grinder,
and as complex as learning how to ride in a car and
walk down a crowded sidewalk.
The puppies live in prison for sixteen months, after
which they are tested to determine their suitability
for training as service dgos for the disabled or explosive
detection canines for law enforcement. If they are
deemed suitable, Puppies Behind Bars returns them
to the schools where they will continue their formal
training. If they do not continue on the track
to become working dogs, Puppies Behind Bars donates
them to families with blind children. In either case,
these puppies, raised in such a unique environment,
spend their lives as companions to people who need
them.
After working with the puppy raisers and their puppies,
I am proud of what is being accomplished. The inmates
have taken tiny little creatures, who were not housebroken,
did not know their names, and obeyed no commands,
and have transformed them into well-behaved young
pups who are a joy to be around. The raisers, too,
have matured: the responsibility of raising a dog
for a blind person and the opportunity to give back
to society are being taken very seriously. Puppy raisers
show the pups tenderness and love which had not been
given expression before, and are deeply committed
to supplying the solid foundations upon which guide
dogs are made.
The puppies have affected the lives not only of their
puppy raisers, but of virtually all the inmates and
staff at the prison. It is literally impossible to
walk a puppy around without being stopped by inmates
who want to pet the dogs or who want to just say 'hi'
to them, and I am constantly being approached by corrections
officers and senior staff who ask me about the puppies'
training. One of our particularly sensitive pups goes
to several different areas of the prison: the sixteen-
and seventeen-year-old inmates play with her; domestic
violence classes use her to get the women to open
up and talk; and she even visits inmates who are about
to go before the parole board, for it has been found
that her presence has a calming effect on the women.
Puppies Behind Bars is in need of funds to continue
and expand our work. We pay 100% of all costs associated
with raising puppies in prison, including dog supplies,
educational supplies for the puppy raisers, teachers'
salaries, and travel.
If you are interested in becoming a weekend puppy
sitter, making
a donation, or having copies of our newsletter
sent to someone you know, please call Puppies Behind
Bars at 212-680-9562 or email us at kate@puppiesbehindbars.com
Thank you.
Gloria Gilbert Stoga
President
Puppies Behind Bars, Inc.
