Prison puppies help twice over

Golden retriever Echo is the first mobility assistance dog to graduate from behind bars and enter advanced training in the community.

Trained by a prisoner at Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility under the Puppies in Prisons Programme, Echo will soon start work helping a person with physical disabilities.

“Echo is an exceptional dog,” says Jody Hogan from the Mobility Assistance Dogs Trust. “He is way ahead of where we would expect him to be.”

There is typically a four-to-five year wait for a mobility dog, so the Puppies in Prison Programme aims to accelerate the number of puppies moving through training – cutting down waiting times.

“Echo’s advanced training will now be considerably shortened, and this is exactly what we have been aiming for,” says Jody.

Research into similar programmes run overseas shows that the prisoners who train the dogs are less likely to re-offend.

“Early results from the programme have been positive. Staff report visible positive changes in the prisoner handlers, who
have all remained incident and drug free during the programme,” says Corrections Policy Advisor Amanda Jones.

“The programme still has some way to go before its success can be fully evaluated, but it offers potential for future expansion, and may open the door for more animal-based programmes.”

Echo’s fellow puppy prisoners Finn and Ezra are on track to graduate from the programme in November. And as for Echo’s prisoner handler – she’s already got her hands full with Frida, the latest puppy to enter the programme.

For a feature on the mobility dog training at Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility, see the June 2009 issue (Number 65) of North & South Magazine.