Prisons and dog rehab

Those people who have gone through some type of rehabilitation program themselves are the most likely to work with others to help them over come their problems. That theory also applies to human and dog interaction. In Washington state, the Department of Corrections has a program where women prisoners in the system take dogs from local shelters and train them to become service dogs. The program is called the Prisoner Pet Partnership Program aka the PPPP.

The women prisoners have more than likely gone through drug rehab or other type of rehab program. They then spend 2 years in the program to learn all the aspects of training. It takes 8 months for a dog to be fully trained from a shelter dog to being placed as a service dog. Out of 15 dogs taken from the shelter only one will make it to becoming a service dog. Not all dogs are suitable or have the knack for the job.Those dogs that do not make the grade are better qualified to find better homes since they have undergone basic training.

The program helps the prisoners find better employment once they leave the system and the dogs find better homes. It seems to be that it is one prisoner (the human kind) helping another prisoner (the shelter dog) get a better life.

Therapy dogs

When you think of the term therapy dogs you are probably thinking about dogs that assist their owners with everyday tasks. Those dogs are called assistant dogs. Therapy dogs have different jobs. Their job is to help people by their presence or action. I was fortunate enough to meet two very lovable therapy dogs at the Stanford Medical center in Palo Alto, California many years ago. My father was dying and the hospital room was a sad one, until the dogs showed up. They managed to cheer everyone up, even if it was for only a few short hours.

The dogs were an experiment that the Stanford Hospital was running at the time. I don't know if they continued having the dogs after that time but they were very welcome to our small family at the time in that room.

Would you buy a puppy on a whim?

I think the great majority of you would say they would never buy a puppy without first planning for it. How many of you have experienced walking passed a family with a huge box of puppies in front of a major store? Normally those people are just trying to find homes for the pups and as a last resort took them to outside a major thoroughfare. Most of the time the pups are free but now the backyard puppy mill people are showing up more and more at those places.

A few years ago a friend of mine encountered a cute litter of Boxer pups near the entrance of a austin weight loss center. She thought they were free and fell in love with one of the pups. She told the man that had them, that she would take that one and proceeded to walk away with the pup. The man stopped her and said, "that will be $400." My friend was shocked. She put the pup back. No where was there a sign that they were for sale.

I have also encountered the same thing where I live. The prices range from $50 to $500 and I can't see how those people are getting the money, but they are.

Dog training

There is a wide variety of dog trainers out there that want your money. Petco has a dog training section which I discovered are only trained to sign you up for more training. In fact Petco does not want people that have any experience with formal dog training, they want people they can train their way, even if the training methods are faulty.

The experiences I have had with professional dog trainers has been very positive. I was fortunate to attend a 8 week course at an AKC sanctioned training club. The trainers both had trained dogs to their championships in obedience class. The credentials that those dog trainers had were in no way a comparison to a Petco dog trainer. They did not have a location next door to circuit city like the Petco had. Their location was in a huge warehouse in the industrial section of town. The space inside the building was great for off leash training and obstical courses. On the other hand the Petco store was way too small for having a proper dog training area.