Dogs on a Mission
I am one of six siblings, six if you consider my two four-legged brothers. It’s a circus in our house, but not without the fur, cuddles, and constant playfulness of Roger and McDuff. I continue to find my parents awkwardly attached to the two dogs, or is it the other way around? McDuff stands guard while my mother takes a shower, and Roger forever licks my father’s toes. They were adopted from Puppies Behind Bars, an organization where incarcerated men and women dedicate their lives to teaching dogs how to serve war veterans or first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder.
McDuff did not pass his final test in the training program, as he was deemed “too sweet” for a life of service, and Roger enjoyed one too many yapping barks (a little too loud when on the job). These wonderfully imperfect creatures, but beyond perfection for their lives as our beloved pets, started their journey behind bars – part of a mission that will stir your heart and soul as it has mine.
Puppies Behind Bars was founded by Gloria Gilbert Stoga twenty-five years ago. Incarcerated men and women dedicate their lives to teaching dogs how to serve war veterans or first responders who have post-traumatic stress disorder.
As Gloria Gilbert recounts in our interview, Puppies Behind Bars is about dogs and people. It is about the big, burly, tattooed prisoner caught cuddling and talking with his puppy trainee, who has learned that he has a purpose and begins to see himself as human again. It is also about the first responder who has regained normalcy and can now venture to the supermarket without fear of a sniper at the end of the aisle – who has found a best friend to tackle his everyday terrors. In this heartwarming interview, I learn how Puppies Behind Bars has delivered year after year on its mission – to change lives one miracle at a time.
Tenderness in a Harsh Environment
Can you tell me about yourself and your relationship with this organization?
I started Puppies Behind Bars 25 years ago. I took it from an idea to what it is now. We are currently working in seven different prisons in New York State. Incarcerated individuals have raised over 4000 dogs. We have working dogs all over the United States. It grew from an idea to something profound.
What draws you to this work personally and professionally?
I teach in a men’s prison every Friday. I go into the prison and teach incarcerated individuals how to raise service and facility dogs. Puppies Behind Bars has paid professional staff that goes in every single day of the week to teach. I love working with incarcerated individuals. They are so eager to learn. They are so eager to give back to society. They are eager to have hope and love in their lives in an environment that is quite bleak. And the dogs and this kind of work opens them up as human beings and I love seeing that.
What is your “cannon” moment? Do you have a special moment that stands out or one moment that you will never forget?
To be perfectly honest, that happens all the time. Working in maximum security prisons, there’s just so much that is a “cannon” moment when you say, “Oh man, I don’t have a camera, but I’m going to remember it in my mind’s eye forever.” It happens constantly. It happens when you see this big, beefy guy completely tattooed, and he’s hugging the puppy. And he’s talking to the puppy, and he doesn’t think anybody sees him. It's that tenderness that I’m very lucky to witness regularly. That tenderness in a harsh environment is my cannon moment.
Invisible Wounds
Can you share how these dogs shape the days or assist the days of these folks with post-traumatic stress?
From 2006 until now, we started working with veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Initially, we worked with veterans with physical wounds, amputations, and bad burns, and then it turned more and more to veterans with brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder, which are called invisible wounds. Those are the people who literally would not be able to leave their homes without their spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, or friend because they were so afraid to be in public. They were afraid of normal things – suddenly, it wasn’t normal anymore. A sniper was around the corner of the food aisle in the supermarket. A person pulling up to you in a car was going to shoot you. The dogs help ground them. The dogs give them a sense of being here in the moment. And the dogs give them confidence. Just enough confidence to go out in the world because they have their best friend right there by their side.
Would you say that the dogs act as their security blanket?
It is more than that. Our dogs for veterans know 92 commands. They are highly trained and highly skilled animals. All animals and dogs are security blankets for all of us. These are highly trained, highly skilled service dogs, so it goes way, way, way beyond a security blanket. It's almost hard to describe. By the time a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder comes to Puppies Behind Bars, he or she has hit rock bottom. They have tried every therapy under the sun. They have tried medications. They have tried everything, and the last chance is trained service dogs. And that service dog can often do miracles. Nobody can explain it, but the dogs do it.
What are the lives of these dogs like while they are in prison and afterward?
That’s a really important question for us. Puppies Behind Bars is crazy about the quality of their dogs. We are adamant that when they are not working when they are home, they have to be doggies well loved. We are adamant that one hour a day, they need to be off-leash exercising, playing with a ball, chasing after a stick. That is when they leave prison. When they are in prison, they have the best life possible. They are growing up with a pack of dogs. They have men and women with them 24/7. They are never alone. In prisons, we have huge, fenced-in recreation areas, and three hours a day, not all at once, the dogs are out there playing and running. In summer, we have doggie swimming pools. In the prison, they go everywhere. They go to church services; they go to the library, college classes, work, to the barbershop. Those dogs have such a stimulating, well-loved life that people think, “Oh, prison,” but man, if I were a dog, I would want to be at Puppies Behind Bars. I can tell you that.
While these dogs are serving veterans with PTSD, they have a working life, but how does that carry over?
“The dogs give them a sense of being here in the moment. And the dogs give them confidence. Just enough confidence to go out in the world because they have their best friend right there by their side. ”
They allow the veteran or the first responder, a person with post-traumatic stress disorder, to resume activity. That is their job. To go in public with their handler and to make their handler feel safe enough that the handler can go into public. – That they can talk to the stranger in the supermarket as to why they have a dog by their side. The dog's working life is to try to bring normalcy back into the life of someone who has been at war or someone who is a first responder and has seen tragic accident after tragic accident after tragic accident.
Do these dogs work their entire lives?
They are placed when they are around two years old, and then they can work until they are nine. They have about a seven to eight-year working life, and they tell the handler when they don’t want to get up as readily as they did before, when they are not as eager to go to work, when they are tired or when they want to stay on their doggie bed. The handler will contact us and say, “It kills me, but it’s time to think about retiring my dog,” and then that dog stays as a pet with that person. And that person gets a successor dog, which is another working dog into their lives.
Click here for part two of interview.
More resources and information about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Service Dogs, and Incarceration on the Inspiration page.