FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. — A New Leash on Life is a program not just changing the outcome for dogs in North Carolina, but also the inmates who train them.
It's a state prison dog-training program where both dogs and inmate trainers get a second chance.
At the Forsyth Correctional Center in Winston-Salem, the dogs work with qualifying inmate trainers for 10 weeks, learning manners and obedience, house and crate training, and basic agility.
Candide Jones, the President of Piedmont Animal Welfare Alliance, said the dogs are with the men 14 hours a day and sleep in indoor kennels on the prison grounds.
After 10 weeks, there’s a graduation where the dogs go to their forever homes.
"The men save the dogs, the dogs save the men, it's a beautiful thing," said Jones. "This program takes dogs really in need of training in order to be adopted and we pair it with the prison, who chooses qualifying inmate trainers, in 10 weeks the dogs are crate trained obedience trained housetrained advanced obedience, agility trained."
Shuki Martin is the Forsyth County Correctional Case Manager and New Leash on Life Coordinator. She said this program is changing the inmate's lives.
"It teaches them to be a community service while incarcerated and this is something that they could use once they get out," said Martin. "They always come back to me and say, 'Hey, thank you that taught me patience, that taught me responsibility,' so it's a lot of different things that the guys getting from this program."
Martin said sometimes offenders get jobs right after they get out of prison.
Inmate trainer Terry Smith is working with the dog Simone.
"It teaches you a lot of responsibility and good work ethic and just doing something good. It's just a great thing," said Smith.
While he's trained a few dogs in the past, this pairing's communication goes beyond words. She is deaf.
"We have a deaf dog, as you know, right now the first ever," said Jones. "She should be statistically hard to adopt. She was in a shelter for a good while. It's just a lot of people think that it's way too difficult to have a deaf dog, but when you talk to Terry, her trainer, you'll find out that it's pretty darn interesting and not that hard."
Smith said she is sweet and loveable and is getting the hang of the training.
"One of the main things you have to do with the deaf dog is get some solid attention grabbers with hand signals," Smith said. "You just get her attention so she's seeing you, so she will know what you want."
Their bond is five weeks in the making.
Smith has taught her to sit, stay, lay down, and go all over the obstacle course.
After 10 weeks, Simone will hopefully find her forever family.
Smith said it is a bond that is tough to lose, but rewarding.
"You always get attached to them and bond with them, but the bottom line is I don't have a home right now," he said. "She deserves a chance at a good home and I assure you with everything in me that if you love this dog, she'll return that love immeasurably."
Smith said he plans to use these skills when he gets out.
"It's definitely my plan because it's something I love and they say when you love something, you know it's not really work," said Smith.
If you ask him if he'll adopt a dog and train it too, he is quick to respond.
"Oh most definitely," he said.
The facility is currently training four dogs for 10 weeks.
Simone, along with a dog named Ranger, are up for adoption and will be fully trained in just five weeks, before getting the next bunch to start training.
If you want to adopt the already trained dogs, you can find them here!