Wink, my retired racer.
Posted on 03/17/2004 7:41:28 AM PST by aomagrat
Retired racers, their handlers prepare for life on the outside
Over the last year and a half, more and more retired greyhounds have been ending up in prison in South Carolina.
And that’s a good thing, many say.
Since October 2002, inmates at the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution in Columbia have taken more than 60 retired greyhounds under their wings for training.
Think Birdman of Alcatraz, but with dogs. The 17 female inmates keep six greyhounds with them around the clock for a few weeks until the pets are adopted.
Kansas, New Jersey and Ohio have similar programs, but only South Carolina has female inmates doing the training.
“They’ve gone beyond the actual sit down and stay,” said Dawn O’Cain, a professional dog trainer and Department of Corrections employee.
Once a week, for about an hour, O’Cain and the inmate dog handlers go over obedience training techniques to help the dogs adjust to a domestic setting.
During a Thursday session, the inmates listened intently to O’Cain, while gently petting the greyhounds.
Although the greyhounds have proven they can sprint, walking on a vinyl floor is another story.
“Carlos, come!” said one inmate from across a classroom Thursday.
Carlos stood up and hesitated for a few seconds. Then he started his wobbly trot to the inmate on the other side of the room, looking like a newborn calf that is just starting to walk.
The other women in the room clapped and laughed in joy.
“These dogs have never in their whole lifetime seen a vinyl floor,” O’Cain said.
The training comes at no cost to the cash-strapped corrections department.
Muzzles, collars, leashes and food used to train the dogs are provided by Greyhound Pets of America-South Carolina, said Debbie Cone, the group’s secretary.
“We make it a point that every dog (the group gets) sees some prison time,” Cone said.
That has created a demand for the incarcerated dogs, she said. Most potential owners do not have the time or money to train their dogs.
The inmates in the program are serving sentences for offenses that range from writing bad checks to murder. Some are serving life sentences.
The program tends to keep the inmates in line.
Should one slip up, there are about 30 inmates on a waiting list to start training the greyhounds.
“They don’t want to get in trouble,” said prison warden Judy Anderson. “They don’t want to lose the dog.”
Many inmates said the training program has taught them self-confidence and patience. (The Department of Corrections prohibits inmates from being directly identified by the media.)
By training the dogs, the women are also nurturing an interest in careers such as grooming, obedience training and veterinary work once they are released.
“I want to do this when I get out,” one inmate said.
Wink, my retired racer.
There are also programs in the mens prisons out west where they help horse trainers train wild mustangs. Same kind of positive reinforcement for the inmates. From experience, I know the huge personal gratification that comes from taking these wild ponies and working with them so that they go from being untrusting and wild beasts to something you'd love your kids to have (as in ahhhh, what a sweet pony!).
I was 12 when I got to do this with a local trainer, and it is still one of the fondest, most "character building" experiences of my life that I cherish. . .even after the stitches and concussions! As a rehabilitation program in the prisons, it is better than counseling, it is better than religion. These guys must somehow teach/convey trust and learn to trust, as well. They bond with the horses when most have never bonded with anything in their lives. They find personal responsibility in their actions and how it relates to the horses' progress. They learn 'cause' and 'effect' immediately in a "positive" way, far separate from how they have learned it with humans. It is Positive Operant Conditioning at its finest: both the animals AND the inmates are "conditoned" with (hopefully!) lasting effects.
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