GATESVILLE — Sharon Cooper, a Houston woman serving 30 years in prison for embezzlement, wasn’t quite sure what she was getting into when she signed up to train dogs with Patriot Paws. Maybe it was all about sitting up, rolling over and doing cute puppy tricks.
She quickly learned, though, that it was about much more: changing lives – her own and others’.
Cooper, 49, is one of 13 female inmates at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Crain Unit devoting their full time to training dogs to aid disabled military veterans. Ten more at the nearby Murray Unit also work in the program.
“I was in awe when I saw what these dogs did,” Cooper said, adding that the training experience has given direction to her own life. “I never really had a passion in life. This could be my passion. This could be my career.”
Many might be surprised at what Patriot Paws dogs, most of whom pretty much appear to be run-of-the-mill Rovers, can do.
Inmates at the Maple Street Jail are helping correct problem dogs’ behavior before the dogs are adopted, a therapeutic exercise that benefits the convicts and canines.
Through an innovative partnership between the Sheriff’s Department and the Peninsula Humane Society, the Transitioning Animals Into Loving Settings (TAILS) program takes men who are in custody for nonviolent crimes and turns them into dog trainers.
Members of the Sheriff’s Department had been looking into providing the 46 men who live full-time at the facility with something constructive to do during the day, Lt. Lisa Williams said. The facility already had a garden with some chickens, but one of the deputies suggested creating a dog training program that could be run at the county level with shelter dogs.
“We spoke with the Peninsula Humane Society, who was wonderful and receptive to the possibility,” Williams said. “This is just a wonderful program; it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.”
The purpose of the program is to match dogs that have questionable adoption potential with inmate volunteers who have been trained to care for and provide behavior modification to the animals.
KABUL — In the struggle to bring peace to Afghanistan, few can claim a more dangerous job than the one Betty and Jimmy are preparing for.
Friendly and eager young German shepherd dogs, they are being trained to search for the remnants of war — hidden land mines and unexploded bombs.
Not only do unseen explosives kill military troops, they take a heavy toll on the innocent. More than 700 civilians are killed or maimed annually in Afghanistan, over half of them children, says the International Committee to Ban Landmines.
NATO and U.S. forces fighting the Taliban jihadist movement do not use mines. But the Taliban does, and so did former occupiers of Afghanistan such as the Soviet Union.
When I picked up my dog Ruby in Long Island nearly seven years ago, I was surprised to discover that she talks like a human. When I ask her a question (Are you hungry? Do you want to eat dinner? Are you going to bed?), she looks me in the eye, nods her head, and opens her mouth in agreement. For years I tried to figure out the reason for her mysterious behavior — was it genetic? — by trying to track down her parents or siblings, but that search only resulted in some phone calls with sympathetic and sometimes suspicious miniature pinscher breeders who told me I should just give up. It finally dawned on me last week to ask an animal behavior expert. So I pinged Victoria Stilwell, who hosts the hilariously informative dog training show It’s Me or the Dog on Animal Planet. Here, Stilwell explains why Ruby talks, why dogs aren’t like humans, and how dog training techniques can be applied to tame unruly children.
