Prison program finds homes for dogs

It’s called the Prison Cell Program and it’s aimed at training shelter dogs at the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center.

The goal is to get dark colored dogs, including black dogs, adopted.

The canines come from the Pocatello Animal Shelter.

Some of the women who are training the dogs are serving life sentences, while some are serving time for less violent crimes.

“When you’re locked up it’s really hard to have to many emotions toward people you don’t know. And it’s hard to get close to people,” said Jordan Shaver, an inmate dog trainer.

The program was first established in 2004.

The dogs are taught basic commands, like play dead and sit.

Many inmates believe that the program has helped them change their lives.

“Now I definitely have a better perspective on other people, like just caring for people more and being more patient with people because you can give love and affection to a dog but you can give that to people, too,” said Shaver.

The dogs are housed in the prison and sleep in kennels.

Karen Collins is a dog trainer who’s been with the program since the beginning. She said black dogs are typically harder to get adopted.

The difficulty adopting black dogs is commonly known as Black Dog Syndrome.

“Although you’ll hear people, ‘Oh, we have black dogs and we love them; and there are many black dogs that are loved, but if you look in the shelters the majority of dogs are black dogs or darker colored dogs,” said Collins.

The program works on finding homes for dogs who are hard to place.

“Of course the dogs are a win, win because they go from a shelter situation, they may have behavioral issues that need to be corrected to make them adoptable. And people get a dog that has had eight weeks of training,” said Collins.

The dogs who are trained in the program are adopted by an application process,
applicants are then reviewed.

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