How appropriate that Devotional Three out of the book “PawPrints on my Soul – Lessons of a Service Dog” came out in the E-news on Doggy Day. Here is the unique story of Sita and her training. ENJOY!
“Each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve others.” 1 Peter 4:10
Once I heard from my nurse friend about the Circletail agency, I perused the website for hours. Spellbound, I read about their wonderful programs. Circletail has a partnership set up with several Ohio prisons where the dogs are trained by the inmates.
I discovered later that the average cost of training a service dog is around $20,000. The prisoners alleviate some of that cost. Because of the prisoner’s donation of time and the public’s donations of funding, Circletail provides trained dogs to people with disabilities for free.
What a win-win! Rescue dogs that would have been euthanized are alive. The people who desperately need service dogs receive them, and prisoners are giving a service, perhaps for the first time in their lives.
This made so much sense to me as I thought about it. Most people don’t have the time to devote to training dogs 24/7. We are working, going to school, raising families, paying bills, and living life.
Prisoners are cooped up all day, bored with nothing to do. I can only imagine how awful it would be to stare at four walls all day. I would be claustrophobic. Why not have them initiate the
obedience training of these dogs while they are inside the prison walls, letting them be of service to others?
What I didn’t realize was the impact training a dog would have on the prisoner/handlers. While combing through the literature posted by Circletail I read several testimonies by prisoners who were positively changed because of their involvement training potential service dogs. The testimonies of the prisoners, and their stories about how the dogs impacted and changed them by showing them unconditional love brought tears to my eyes.
The pictures of the dogs were endearing. One special photo was of a pink-nosed lab mix puppy with an inquisitive look. I knew God was working in the lives of people I would never meet, but who had a big part in my future.
“A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil.” Ecclesiastes 2:24
Dear God,
Every single person on earth is able to be of service, even a prisoner. Thank you for the prisoners who assist in training these special dogs. And Lord, please help me be of service to others. Amen.