Walker County Animal Shelter to Participate in Prison Dog Program

The Walker County Animal Shelter and Walker State Prison will join forces in early 2023 to launch a new prison dog program. The program is designed to provide inmates with the opportunity to give back to the community by fostering and caring for homeless shelter dogs. In addition, inmates will learn a new skill set used to provide basic obedience training for the dogs.

Over the course of the seven-week program, inmates will be selected as handlers/trainers for the dogs. There will be two inmates assigned to each dog. The dogs will live in the dorm with their handlers and receive around the clock interaction. The Walker County Animal Shelter will be responsible for choosing which dogs participate in the program and those dogs will arrive at the prison fully vetted and ready to begin their training.

A trainer will visit the prison once a week to teach the inmates the different skills they need in order to train the dogs while in their care.

After the seven-week program, the dogs will be available for adoption. Adopters will be screened and pre-approved by Walker County Animal Shelter with a goal of having each dog pre-adopted upon graduation from the program.