NYT video on puppies being trained in jail as service dogs for those suffering with PTSD

[Bozita]

It's in the video section about halfway down the page: http://nytimes.com/

It's a bit over five minutes long. Fascinating stuff!

[Frustratedlady]

1. Beautiful program that benefits people on both sides of the walls.

So many PTSD victims coming back, it is a societal shame.

Someone should be punished severely for this situation. The Hague comes to mind.

[aquart]

4. You, too, huh?

[Batgirl]

2. even though emotional exhaustion has set in after 7+ years of chronic outrage

I have to say this video caused a fresh surge of anger at Bush along with admiration for those other, much more fully human beings engaged in an effort to help our physically and psychologically wounded vets.

Anger not only because he and his henchmen caused so much death and suffering, but even more so because he HAS NO REGRETS. I have no doubt Bush could watch this video -- of the soldier describing how he wakes up from nightmares and is reassured by the presence of his therapy dog -- and not feel a twinge of responsibility.

Nothing is quite real to him, unless it affects him personally.

[roguevalley]

8. dogs are god's gift for sadness.

[Pastiche423]

3. Thank you for bringing this to our attention

It warms my heart to know there are people in this country that are trying to help our wounded soldiers coming home, despite the administration's opposite position.

Being able to go outside and into the real world again is a tremendous step towards healing.

Unless you've been there, it is difficult to understand how debilitating PTSD is.

[Wilms]

5. Oh my!! That was the wonderful. Permalink here

Prison Puppies

By JOSEPH BERGER
Published: June 1, 2008

BEDFORD HILLS, N.Y.

JAYMIE POWERS, a 43-year-old mother of three grown children who is in prison for second-degree murder, is seated in a wheelchair pretending to be a disabled person shopping at a supermarket. She is working on getting a Labrador retriever, Devon, to fetch a box of cereal from a counter and place it in a straw bag.

snip

Ms. Powers is one of about 30 women here who take part in a program run by an organization called Puppies Behind Bars that gets inmates at several prisons in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to help train service dogs to assist disabled people, including veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

snip

Many of the dogs will eventually be farmed out free of charge to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who are themselves confined — to wheelchairs or to navigating life with a missing limb or two. (Indeed, the program is trying to make veterans more aware of the dogs’ availability.) Some women have a particularly tender spot for these ex-soldiers.

snip

The women not only train the dogs but the dogs also train them, in a way.

“When we first become incarcerated,” Ms. Powers said, “you shut off, you’re numb, you don’t want to become vulnerable.” The dogs teach them to loosen up and vent an emotion or two. “There’s no other place in this facility where you can show love and caring and not feel that people will see you as weak,” she said. “Our pups allow us to be human again.”

snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/01Rpuppies.html?_r=1&oref=slogin


The video page:

In Training

Women inmates at a New York prison are training puppies to help the disabled and returning war veterans.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=1c19a2e38f08b1b1bbb7e54c837485938cbc401c

[Bozita]

7. That's interesting. The NYT had the video up before the print story.

Thanks.

[Quantess]

6. I couldn't find the link, but I think I know what you're talking about.

There's a show called "Prison Dogs" on the Animal Planet Channel. I have watched 2 or 3 episodes, and I think it's a really great program, for both the dogs and the inmates. The pound dogs get to learn new tricks, as the inmates learn how to bond with a loving pet.

[LeftyMom]

9. Sounds kinda risky for the dogs.

:(