Six thoroughly screened military veterans incarcerated at the Blackwater River Correctional Facility have the chance of an inmate’s lifetime, training service dogs for other military veterans. While the nonprofit America’s VetDogs (AVD) has trained service dogs for veterans since 2003, Santa Rosa County’s prison is the organization’s location for its pilot program, which will look into how service dogs can help veterans struggling with the effects of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as physical disabilities.
Wells Jones is the CEO of the Guide Dog Foundation, the parent organization of AVD. He spoke to the approximately 40 assembled at the prison about how AVD works and how the prison is involved.
“I refer to the program as designer dogs, not for their breed but to understanding disabilities and mitigating those disabilities,” Jones said. The dogs, he said, the program trains for a specific veteran’s disabilities, whether he or she is blind or deaf or has other physical disabilities as well as PTSD. To aid those with PTSD, Jones said the dogs are trained in nightmare interruption, turning on lights, and helping veterans be more comfortable in various situations.
Training begins when the animals are puppies, from 7 weeks to 14 months old. This is where they begin with the inmates. Under Canine Program Director Julie Stack, six thoroughly vetted inmates currently work with the three Labrador puppies, Kenve, Nadia, and Barnaby received at Blackwater River Correctional May 28, training them in “four foundations of service dog tasks: retrieve, tug, push, and brace, all part of the VetDogs training curriculum,” according to VetDogs.org.
Warden Scott Middlebrooks said the dogs stay with the inmates in their cells and only leave the campus for weekend socializing with volunteers, to get used to places like malls and restaurants, anywhere they can’t train at the prison. Middlebrooks said he had a corrections officer tell him he could not believe the difference in an inmate after working with the puppies. Assistant Warden Gary English said the block where the puppies live during the week showed a 90 percent drop in disciplinary reports. Middlebrooks also shared an anecdote of an inmate who wasn’t even in the program. He had the opportunity to pet one of the dogs, Middlebrooks said, and cried because it had been about 15 years since he’d been able to touch a dog.
The ultimate beneficiaries of the program, of course, are the veterans. After the 14 month training program at Blackwater, and several months learning advanced techniques required by the applying veteran with the VetDogs service dog training team, the vet meets his or her dog and trains for several weeks learning the commands and how to apply them at no expense.
Army veteran of the first Gulf War, who re-enlisted after 9/11, Jeff Casper, said without his service dog Isaiah, of three years, his life would have been difficult. Casper said he suffered two blasts resulting in traumatic brain injury and a broken back leading to sleep problems and 30 spinal and back procedures. In addition to Isaiah aiding Casper in picking up items like a can he drops and bracing when he needs to stand up, he said he can’t express what Jones’ program has done for him mentally.
“Before I got Isaiah, I was in a dark place. I made a plan. I started to execute it. I had no purpose. I made sure my family was self sufficient, so they didn’t need me. I started to self-medicate. I only ate two to three times a week.”
Isaiah came into Casper’s care in 2012 and gave him purpose again, Casper said. As per the program, Casper said nobody else was allowed to feed Isaiah or let him outside, so he was solely Casper’s responsibility.
“He became my purpose. The worst thing for a man is not to feel needed.” Now, he said, his family has taken on foster children, all because of a dog. As far as how Isaiah’s helped aside from physical tasks, Casper said, “I’ve only finished two nightmares in three years. That’s a blessing.”
Stack said this year Blackwater will receive 10 puppies, 3 to 4 at a time, 4 months apart to be trained there and socialized out in the community on the weekend. Anyone interested in becoming a weekend puppy raiser should visit www.vetdogs.org and follow the link under How To Help. Check out the video here of Casper working with Isaiah.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Blackwater Correction inmates train dogs for veterans (VIDEO)