By Tiffany Thompson, News Editor
Sunday, January 25, 2009 — New Leash on Life (NLOL), a dog training program at Albemarle Correc-tional Institution (ACI), held a graduation for three dogs Thursday.
Vixin, Roxie and Sheba were in the fifth cycle of classes held at ACI since NLOL began last March.
Vixin is a 9-month-old Labrador/retriever mix, Sheba is a 1 1/2-year-old Mastiff mix and Roxie is a 1 1/2-year-old Beagle/terrier mix.
Throughout each class, the dogs are trained by six inmate handlers during an 8-12 week course.
“Most of our classes have finished in eight weeks and all of the dogs that have participated have been adopted,” said Renea Laxton, NLOL coordinator.
Mark Thompson, a professional dog trainer with Dog Training in Your Home, and his colleague, Cody Moates, volunteer at the medium-custody facility in Badin, two days a week to work with the inmate trainers during sessions.
This cycle of inmate trainers included Rick Moore, Jerome Peterson, Perry Widemon, Rufus Cheek, James Gilbert and Paul Kurtz.
During graduation ceremonies, each of the trainers assist the dogs through demonstrations of what they learned during the classes.
The first series of demonstrations were on-leash commands where the trainers worked with the dogs while they were still on leashes. This was followed by off-leash commands.
Next the trainers played hide-n-seek with the dogs where the trainers would hide somewhere in the room and call each dog individually. The dogs would respond by finding the trainer.
Each dog then demonstrated tricks they learned. Lastly, the dogs were instructed to “leave it” where a plate of food was placed in front of them and they were told to leave it alone until given the command to eat.
“This program teaches humbleness, self control, compassion and love, patience, determination and it builds confidence. At the end, we have the satisfaction and pride of saying ‘I did this,’” Widemon said.
“I’ve seen others grow and I’ve seen myself grow as a result of this program. It’s a great opportunity.”
A new cycle of classes is preparing to begin, but the program has become such a success that six dogs have been chosen instead of only three.
The new dogs are:
• Marko, who is a 3-year-old Terrier mix
• One-year-old Max
• Beautifull, a 2-year-old Collie mix
• BJ (Bear Jr.), a Labrador/retriever mix
• King, a German Shepherd mix and
• Venus, a 1 1/2-year-old, Australian Shepherd mix.
Laxton said if anyone is interested in adopting one of the new dogs after they complete the classes, they are asked to call the Stanly County Humane Society, Inc. at (704) 983-7729.
Contact Tiffany Thompson at (704) 982-2121 ext. 24.
