Katrina victim finds new life on Key Pen

By Lori Colbo, KP News

New Key Peninsula resident Grace Van Dyke has made a new start since Hurricane Katrina ripped through her former hometown of New Orleans. She was wise enough to heed the warnings that Katrina was coming and fled to Arkansas the day before it hit. When she returned home two weeks later, the house was still intact, but her city was devastated.

Grace Van Dyke (foreground) teaches hands-on classes to the inmates as a part of the Prison Pet Partnership Program inside the Washington Corrections Center for Women.  Photo by Mindi LaRose

A dog trainer by trade, Van Dyke stayed around New Orleans for a year. But the time came for her to reassess what she wanted to do. After much thought, she decided to enroll in Assistant Dog Institute in Santa Rosa, Calif. “Assistant Dog Institute is the only educational institute devoted to dog research and training in the country,” she says.

She went through eight months of classes and obtained an associate of science degree in assistant dog training. Shortly thereafter, she applied for the training dog coordinator position in the Prison Pet Partnership Program at the Washington State Corrections Center for Women in Purdy. Last June, she began her work coordinating the program.

Van Dyke explains that the PPP program has a two-fold purpose. One part is the running of the kennels, which involves 12 inmates. The second part is the training of the dogs.  There are only six or seven dogs training at one time, so there is only the need for a handful of inmates to be working with them at a time. Currently, 35 to 40 inmates are on the waiting list for this program.

The PPP program builds confidence for trainers and caregivers, and teaches a sense of responsibility, according to Van Dyke. She says working with the dogs helps develop parenting, social, and communications skills as well. The inmates also get paid to be a part of the program, and there is a low rate of recidivism among its participants.

Inmate Alvinita Stuart gives her potential service-dog-in-training (adopted from the Humane Society) some positive feedback during a class taught by Van Dyke (background). Photo by Mindi LaRose

The dogs in the PPP program are trained to help people with such things as balance problems, seizure disorders, and various disabilities. However, they do not train them as guide dogs for the blind or hearing impaired. The dogs are taught approximately 105 commands and learn to do tasks such as turning light off and on, and opening doors.

The dogs come from animal shelters. Van Dyke looks for dogs that are mellow, slow to act, and have low initiative. “We don’t want a dog that darts,” she says. Golden Retrievers and Labs are great dogs for this kind of training, but there are many others that are just right for the program. Van Dyke has learned a lot about the canine species and gives them the credit they deserve. She says: “I am a firm believer that dogs are smarter than we give them credit for.”       

Van Dyke gives a tour of the program and shows off the full-service grooming area, a part of the Prison Pet Partnership Program. Photo by Mindi LaRose