Joys of Living Assistance Dogs, trained at the Oregon State Correctional Institute east of Salem for nearly two years, went home with their new owners Monday.
SALEM, Ore. — Graduation day is an emotional time for future assistance dogs and their trainers at the Oregon State Correctional Institution east of Salem. The Joys of Living Assistance Dogs team said nearly two years of work goes into training these so-called “guardian angels” to serve vulnerable people in the community.
Monday, behind the barbed wire and the thick walls of the prison, the organization held a special passing of the leash ceremony involving 12 dogs ready to begin work with their new owners.
Up to 15 dogs-in-training have been living with their adult in custody (AIC) trainers in their prison dorm room, packed with bunks and crates.
“At any time, we have 10 to 15 dogs in the dorm with 14 other people in the dorm,” said David Derrick, an AIC trainer, “so there’s a lot going on in there, and we have to learn to be patient with each other.”
Derrick witnessed the birth of some of the dogs in the dorm room — right beside the piles of leashes, plush toys and bags of food. On Monday, he saw many of them graduate to the outside world.
“It kind of brings us together. It makes us feel more like a family, like we did something. We accomplished something,” he said.
AIC program facilitator Stranger Davis said handing over the leash can be bittersweet.
“Sadness in the sense that you lost something, you had to let go, but you know it’s going to go so something that is so much greater than you,” he said.
Davis helped train Raven through the JLAD program and introduced the dog to its recipient Joe Gallagher.
“I just watched that man’s life change in the best, most drastic way,” said Davis, “and he’s been waiting for it.”
Gallagher lost his service dog of 10 years in June, and he said he can already sense Raven is smart and responsive. He said his previous dog helped with the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and mobility issues he’s had since getting injured in Vietnam.
“She will nudge me, and redirect me, and all of a sudden my focus goes to her, instead of being anxious,” he said.
Luis Salas has helped train dogs with JLAD for 13 years. He said he was transferred from Pendleton’s prison to help facilitate the program in Salem.
“I feel proud of the community, like I’m actually giving back,” Salas said. “It makes me feel human.”
He had a big handshake for Shane Noniza, who received Sebastian to help with his anxiety.
“I kind of forgot there was a whole room looking at me,” said Noniza, “but it felt peaceful.”
The training team demonstrated for the crowd at the graduation ceremony how Wilson is trained to disrupt the sleep of his assigned person, who pretended to have night terrors.
Service dog Blitz showed how he was trained to get low to lick the face of his assigned person and go get help when his trainer pretended to collapse to the ground.
All the dogs receive the same training, and JLAD’s director Joy St. Peter told the crowd the dogs don’t just help the recipients.
“So what they do is work into your heart,” she said, “and dogs heal the heart. So, when they’re coming forward, every one of these guys and the socializers who are out there have to open their hearts and love, and adapt and be a different person.”
Salas agreed, saying that working and living with the dogs changes people.
“It just synchronizes you, with something else, there’s really no words,” he said. “Dogs just have a special thing about them that makes you see life in a different way.”
The nonprofit Joys of Living Assistance Dogs is currently funded with private donations, but those involved hope Oregon lawmakers will approve public funding so they can expand the partnership to even more prisons.
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