CONCORD, NH – The New Hampshire Department of Corrections reveals the arrival of Zoey, a young dog discovered abandoned and overlooked that is now a happy “comfort dog” graduate with a crucial job to do.
Zoey is the 2nd dog in the department’s convenience dog program. The department’s other convenience dog, Riley, works out of the Northern New Hampshire Correctional Facility with his handler, Lieutenant Michael Wedge.
“We are thrilled to welcome Zoey to our team,” said New Hampshire Department of Corrections Commissioner Helen Hanks. “Our corrections professionals working inside the prison walls are in a high stress environment every day. Riley showed us the value that comfort dogs bring to our team at our northern correctional facility. Having a comfort dog now available for staff in our southern facilities is an important tool to assist with stress management and anxiety experienced on the job.”
Zoey is a young laboratory mix rescue dog, who was discovered bound beyond a Winn-Dixie supermarket, emaciated. She is now a graduate of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Paws and Stripes College in Florida. The SEA/SEIU Local 1984 kindly contributed funds for the Department of Corrections’ Administrator of Recruitment and Onboarding, Tina Thurber, to go to a licensed convenience dog managing program in Florida. This program taught Thurber how to partner with Zoey, and both effectively finished the program recently. Zoey and Administrator Thurber will quickly be a nationally signed up, accredited treatment dog group.
The Department of Corrections’ convenience dog program becomes part of numerous department led efforts focused on worker health. Zoey will make routine check outs to each of the Department of Corrections’ centers to check out with staff, help in important event debriefings, and go to neighborhood outreach occasions.
“Paws and Stripes gave Zoey a second chance, and it is this same second chance mission that drove me to pursue a career in corrections eighteen years ago,” said Thurber. “I am honored to have been trusted as Zoey’s handler and look forward to seeing the amazing work she will do with our team!”
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Paws and Stripes College is an AKC acknowledged treatment dog organization based in Titusville, Florida. The Paws and Stripes program started in 2006 as a basic dog obedience program to conserve the lives of dogs in the Brevard County Animal Shelter. The program has actually considering that advanced into the Paws and Stripes College and uses the basic occupants of the initial program, while consisting of an advanced training program for choose canine graduates to work as Law Enforcement and Multidiscipline Crimes Against Persons Therapy Dogs.
