Rehabilitating shelter dogs give Muskegon prisoners a sense of purpose

In August 2019, the Muskegon Humane Society and the Ernest C. Brooks Correctional Facility created the first-of-its-kind, 12-week shelter dog training program.

The program is unique because shelter dogs live in the prison with the inmates. Other prison training programs typically bring dogs in for a few hours at a time, and the training usually is to prepare them to be service dogs.

The goal of the Brooks program is to make dogs deemed difficult more suitable for adoption. Along the way, they end up changing the lives of their inmate trainers.

The dogs move into the prison and live in the cells with two handlers who work one-on-one to promote confidence and teach obedience in their furry friends.

“A lot of dogs just get overlooked because they are jumpy, they are mouthy, they had no training as puppies and then their owners just threw them in a shelter where they are great dogs, but just need a little TLC,” said Alexis Ogborn, executive director of the Muskegon Humane Society.

This is the video that accompanies the photo-story: "Prison inmates, shelter dogs help each other in program paused by coronavirus"