Correctional center tries new canine training programs Inmates to participate in dog training for blind By Anna Krejci News-Chronicle After about a year of silence, the halls of the minimum security Sanger B. Powers Correctional Center will be filled with barks, howls and yips. And the noises won't be coming from the inmates. Instead, they'll be coming from as many as two dozen dogs sent to the center for training from the Fox Valley Humane Association of Appleton and the Leader Dogs for the Blind Program in Rochester, Mich. The center, N8375 County Line Road, discontinued its Liberty Dogs program last year. Wisconsin Department of Corrections Secretary Matt Frank made the announcement on Tuesday during a news conference at the center. Dogs that come to the correctional center through the FVHA's Redirecting Energetic Behavior of Untrained, Needy Dogs Program will be trained by inmates for 12 weeks before FVHA places the dogs with owners. LDBP dogs will come to the inmates at eight weeks of age and stay for a year until the dogs master basic obedience skills. Then they attend a guide-dog school. Inmates will work in teams of four to care for each dog, making it easier for the inmates who come and go to work to train the animals, said Mickey McCash, warden of the Wisconsin Correctional Center System. Unlike the Liberty Dogs program, Wisconsin Department of Corrections is not responsible for the two programs' financial management or the placement of the dogs, McCash said. FVHA and LDBP will manage funds, training, the supply of food, veterinary services and transportation for the animals. Frank did not detail the problems of the former Liberty Dog program during the news conference, but said Tuesday's announcement of the new dog training programs was a step forward. "What we're announcing today is, what I think, a very positive message of how we're gonna move forward with this program," Frank said. "Yeah we did have some issues with the former program, but I think we worked through those," he said, adding the future program should be successful. Between the two programs, the center will house a maximum of 24 dogs at one time, said Jim Nagle, SBPCC superintendent. Maggie Weir, a LDBP representative, said guide dogs help people around the world. She said she knows of dogs that have been sent to Chile and Taiwan. "I think a lot to times you give money, you give things to organizations, you give old furniture to Goodwill, but something like this, you're giving something that is so tangible and such a part of yourself and your family, for all of us who raise the dogs, it's wonderful, and I think it's going to be wonderful for inmates here as well," she said. McCash said the program makes a difference for the inmates. "Not only do the inmates feel that they're giving something back to the community, but it teaches them about being compassionate and it teaches them about taking responsibility and care for someone other than themselves. Sometimes they are self-focused, and they want them to learn to be able to give to others," she said. SBPCC is the only correctional facility in the state to have a dog training program for inmates.