Prisoners turn dog trainers
They’ve softened the hearts of eight prison inmates but mobility assistance dogs are doing more than that at Spring Hill Corrections Facility in Waikato – they’re also teaching patience, commitment and responsibility.
And they provide the inmates with a sense of purpose, since the dogs will eventually serve disabled people around New Zealand.
Eight members of the Puna MaTauranga (the internal self-care unit at Spring Hill) are training the dogs to open and close doors, take wet laundry out of a washing machine and put it into a basket, to work with people in wheelchairs and to bark to alert neighbours if their owner is in trouble.
‘‘We get dogs as blank canvases and we teach them all the tricks that they can use to better people’s lives,’’ an inmate said.
‘‘They are with us 24 hours, seven days a week. They sleep under our beds – we have our beds high so they can sleep under them so they know when we are getting out of the bed.
‘‘We make them open the door for us, make them bring their bowl to us for their food.’’
It takes the prisoners four to five hours a day for up to eight months to train a dog.
‘‘It means a lot to me, knowing I am part of it. But it’s quite difficult, as it’s not a walk in the park,’’ the prisoner said. ‘‘It’s quite hard not to get attached to them, as they leave us after a few months.’’
Mobility dog recipients have a physical disability, which can range from paralysis to impairment from a stroke.
‘‘My brother has spinal muscular atrophy, so he’s in a wheelchair all the time as it is – so that has woken me up as to what I can do to help him going forward in life,’’ the prisoner said.
There is a waiting list of 18 months to three years for the dogs.
Mobility Dogs Trust partnered with the Department of Corrections six years ago. The trust provides dogs – generally labradors or retrievers – at 12 months old for the inmates to train.
Dog handler is a sought-after position amongst the inmates. They don’t need previous association with dogs, but prisoners do go through an interview selection procedure.
The trust’s senior canine handler Natalie Ramm said it’s a natural fit, using inmates as trainers.
‘‘Prison works. We didn’t invent the wheel here. Internationally, there are other countries that have been doing it before us.
‘‘We can see the benefits in the model . . . these people generally have the time, the commitment and the ability to put the effort into the dogs so we can reach more people quickly. — Fairfax NZ