Marley is a blonde Labrador retriever. I knew her as a wiggly, happy dork who would lick my arms until they hurt. She’d swing her loose hips back and forth, sneezing and snorting all over me.
Before I met Marley, it had been nearly a decade since I’d seen a dog, let alone pet one. Then I was given the opportunity to become a service dog trainer with Guide Dogs of America. GDA trains service dogs for veterans, children with autism and anyone else whose trauma and social anxiety can be eased by the presence of a canine companion. But as we train these dogs to support their future companion, they heal us and everyone else on the yard too.
Trainers are with dogs most of the day. The dogs go where we go: to school, medical and programming. We bathe them in the same showers we bathe ourselves. We groom them and cut their nails. Sometimes, if we can get the hose, we run a “doggie car wash” outside in the yard. Our bosses from GDA provide the food, medicine and grooming tools we need from outside.
It takes a year to fully train each dog, who are typically a little over a year old when they come to us. By the end, they know 57 cues, from how to properly hug, snuggle and walk in step with you to open up cabinets, retrieve items and deliver them straight to your hand.
When most people think of prison they think of a scary place full of scary people, like a movie from the 1980s. Here on Echo Yard, a unique unit established in 2017 with greater access to education and vocational programming, people walk their dogs around a large gravel track while others rush back and forth to college classes and self-help groups.
Heath Sosa, who has been a facilitator and senior trainer for a decade, said the program has become his passion. He was the first prisoner to have a dog at this facility back when GDA was called Tender Loving Canines.
“It’s a chance for me to give back to my community and live my life like a responsible human being,” he said. “This program changes people for the better and reminds us that we are still a part of the world outside these walls.”
Ms. J. Bohan, a service dog trainer with GDA Management, is proud that she helps people in prison through her work.
“I have the best job in the world,” Bohan said. “I get to work with disabled persons, and the incarcerated population. I see people who haven’t had much opportunity in life get a chance to achieve great things.”
About a year ago, Marley was placed with a veteran who loves the outdoors; he travels across the country as a representative of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Last I heard, Marley was shaking her hips and happy-sneezing somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.
The dogs we train become like our kids. You raise ’em up and if you’ve done your job correctly, you let them go and live their lives. It hurts, but it hurts with a purpose.