Prison Dog Program

In 1981, Sister Pauline Quinn started the Prison Dog Program in Washington State, rescuing shelter dogs & bringing them into the prison where inmates trained them to assist the handicapped. The inmates learned responsibility through the care and training of these special dogs.

Today, Prison Dog Programs are in many states & some think it is one of the most successful rehabilitation programs in the American prison system. Pathways To Hope is a non-profit public charity (501 c-3) started by Sister Pauline, which helps other prisons and service dog groups start prison dog programs.

With funding from Dog Bless America, Pathways to Hope identifies which programs and service dogs are the best match to help our veterans. These funds also assist Prison Dog Programs in placing the dogs with wounded soldiers.

From Sister Pauline Quinn

As the founder of the prison dog programs here in the United States and my nearly fifty years of  involvement in different  dog projects, I have found very few groups who could equal the commitment, the concern and the love coming from the people who manage as well as assist  at Central Bark Doggy Day Care.  They extend this love not only to their clients and friends but with people that they meet along the way.
Central Bark has shown me what good business is all about. They are focused on the dog and the human as a team, bringing a wonderful feeling of belonging while pointing out the importance of  education, training and having our pets and us humans,  learn positive and effective ways to become a closer team. But equally important, Central Bark is helping to give back to our community.  They are helping to raise funds to pay for a service dog that will be given to a wounded Veteran.
 
Knowing the hardships in the war, especially if one comes home wounded, it is wonderful that Central Bark cares to try and get these men and women who have served us so faithfully,  a special dog to assist them.
 
Each year Central Bark brings people together at a dog camp in central Wisconsin and there the fun begins.  People come from all over. There are games, hikes, canoes, swimming, good food and all sorts of programs to help us learn, doing this  all with your dog. It is great fun. We eat together in the lodge dinning room, laughing at the funny jokes, watch all of us have fun in the Olympics for dogs. It is a great way to spend a little part of the summer and hope that I can enjoy camp there again. The enthusiasm vibrates throughout camp. Come!  Get involved with this fun group of people.