The same week most children were going back to school, three special “youngsters” were graduating. In late August, the first class of dogs in the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA’s TAILS (Transitioning Animals into Loving Situations) program spent their final days of an eight-week program with inmates in a minimum security facility.
PHS/SPCA and the Sheriff’s Office designed TAILS, the first program of its kind in San Mateo County, to give dogs with little adoption potential round-the-clock attention from inmates while giving inmates an avenue for developing skills so that doing their time is more meaningful.
PHS/SPCA trainers visited the Redwood City facility each Friday to lead a structured obedience class while monitoring the three dogs’ progress and the work of their inmate handlers. Outside of these visits, the dogs’ care, training, socialization, exercise, grooming, and housetraining was left entirely to the inmates.
An average day consisted of many supervised off-leash romps in the facility’s spacious yard, group “play dates” including all three dogs, individual work on homework assignments from program classes, socialization with other inmates, and maybe a little TV viewing in the evening.
Each dog in this first group presented a particular issue shelter staff knew would either keep adopters away or lead to behavior problems down the road if ignored. For Buster, a Pointer Mix, it was his painfully shy demeanor. The day he joined the inmate population, he urinated submissively while being carried into the facility; by week two, he was galloping across the training yard to greet us on Fridays.
“Quincy,” a Pit Bull puppy, was shy and needed a firm training hand to get her started on the right paw. She quickly became the inmates’ and deputies’ favorite.
“Charlie,” a blond lummox of a Yellow Lab mixed with Shepherd, proved too strong and unruly at the shelter; many of the staff and volunteers could not easily get him in and out of his kennel for a daily walk. He graduated, but didn’t exactly make the Warden’s List; we decided a few extra weeks of “summer school” would help refine the lessons he learned during the eight-week program. This was fine by the inmates, who had begun moping when they realized the dogs would soon be leaving their facility and moving into permanent homes.
As I write this in early September, all dogs in the first class have potential adopters, and we fully expect each of them will be in a new, loving, and permanent home soon.
The inmates’ time, attention, and genuine affection for the dogs has proven invaluable. At PHS/SPCA, which houses up to 1,000 animals during summer months, this level of care for every dog is impossible. The shelter staff are as eager as the inmates for our next class to begin. Soon, three new dogs will have the experience of their lives at the Maple Street detention facility in Redwood City.
Before we settled on TAILS, an early finalist in our naming contest was Maple Street Miracles. Indeed, if the outcome of our first class is any indication, the transformations experienced by the dogs in this new program will be nothing short of miraculous.
Special thanks to Pet Food Express, which donated the dogs’ bedding, crates, toys, leashes, collars, and food.
Scott Delucchi is Sr. Vice President of Community Relations for Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA. Scott and his family recently lost their dog of 13 years and may soon be adopting a TAILS program graduate.
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