DOG TRAINING PROGRAM FOR JUVENILE INMATES WINS AWARD -“Chico was a good dog, I taught her everything I could and it was pretty hard to let her go…She helped me in a lot of ways…”
The “Kids for Canines” program at the San Juan County Juvenile Detention Center in New Mexico recently won a Significant Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties. In this program, dogs from the Aztec Animal Shelter are trained at the detention center by inmates to prepare the dogs for adoption. Here’s more from The Daily Times:
“If we get angry, they’ll calm us down,” said Harley Bassett, a 17-year-old inmate who has worked with the program since it started. “It’s nice to have a dog as a friend, somebody to be there for you and bring you up when you’re not having a good day.”
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San Juan County recently was awarded a Significant Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties for the program.
The program is part of the San Juan County Juvenile Detention Center. The county’s juvenile services department started the program in November 2010 and inmates have trained and adopted 12 dogs. Two dogs living at the detention center are being trained through the program.
“The juveniles have learned empathy for others, reduced their aggression, been taught job skills and improved their socialization and communication skills in therapy sessions…
It appears that the inmates have benefited from the calming influence and loving demeanor of these dogs. Hopefully the Kids for Canine dogs are adopted into permanent homes. Congratulations to the program for the recognition. Click here for the full story.
