Nora Moran is a director at Puppies Behind Bars, a program that employs prisoners to raise and train puppies who will grow up to become service dogs, therapy dogs, and working dogs. She first learned about the program when she herself got the opportunity to raise a puppy while incarcerated at New York's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. Since her release in 2008, she has been working to help more prisoners raise dogs and learn about training. She and Annie discuss the kinds of work the prisoners are doing with the dogs, and talk about the transformations that take place as prisoners welcome dogs, and behavioral science, into their lives.  In this episode, Annie also reads the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior's recent position paper on humane training.  Learn more about Puppies Behind Bars at puppiesbehindbars.com 

Read the AVSAB position statement at http://schoolforthedogs.com/humanetraining 

Mentioned in this episode:  Treat Everyone Like a Dog: How a Dog Trainer's World View Can Improve Your Life by Karen B. London, PhD http://amazon.com/Treat-Everyone-Like-Dog-Trainers/dp/1952960002 

AVSAB's Recommended Reading List:  1. Decoding Your Dog (American College of Veterinary Behaviorists)  2. Decoding Your Cat (American College of Veterinary Behaviorists)  3. From Fearful to Fear Free (Dr. Marty Becker, Dr. Lisa Radosta, Dr. Wailani Sung, Mikkel Becker)  4. Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy (Zazie Todd)  5. Puppy Start Right (Dr. Kenneth Martin and Debbie Martin)  6. The Power of Positive Dog Training (Pat Miller)  7. Don’t Shoot the Dog! (Karen Pryor)  8. How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves (Dr. Sophia Yin)  9. The Other End of the Leash (Patricia McConnell)  10. Control Unleashed: Reactive to Relaxed (Leslie McDevitt)  11. Animal Training: Successful Animal Management through Positive Reinforcement (Ken Ramirez)

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hi there. I have an interesting conversation to share with you all today. I spoke to Nora Moran who learned to train dogs as an inmate in prison. She was incarcerated for 10 years and was a puppy raiser behind bars. And now she works for Puppies Behind Bars as a director. I asked her about the program and her evolution as a dog trainer.

But before I share my chat with Nora, I wanted to read aloud a position statement that was just published by AVSAB, that stands for the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behaviorists. They put out this excellent statement about why we should not be using force punishment and aversive techniques to train dogs.

So I am reading it aloud. It takes me about 13 minutes. I read the whole thing, including the Frequently Asked Questions, plus the books they recommend, if you’re interested in learning more about positive reinforcement training. So if you’ve already read it or you’re not interested, you can skip ahead about 13 or 14 minutes. You can also find the position paper on our website at schoolforthedogs.com/humanetraining.

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

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