Troubled Teen Cares for Unwanted Dog

When a troubled teen cares for an unwanted dog, the healing begins for both.

Spiker is only a year old, but he's already done time on death row. Abandoned by his owners, he landed in an animal shelter with a policy of destroying dogs that were passed over for adoption.

Now, though, he's gotten a reprieve. "Come on, Spiker. You can do it," his trainer urges. "Shake, boy, shake!"

Spiker, a mix of German shorthaired pointer and Labrador retriever, gazes at the young woman, perplexed. Then he remembers: Last time he obeyed Marcy, a biscuit magically appeared. Slowly he raises his right paw. "Good boy," Marcy says, ruffling the dog's spotted coat and offering a treat.

Spiker is changing Marcy's life as surely as Marcy is changing his. The 18-year-old has lived at Echo Glen Children's Center, a state-operated juvenile correctional facility in Snoqualmie, Washington, for nine months. While she's there, she's participating in Canine Connections, a program that brings unwanted dogs and incarcerated kids together.

"I've never been attached to a dog before, because things always move away from me," Marcy says. "It's like with my family. They die or they leave me." Marcy never knew her father; her mother died of a drug overdose when Marcy was eight. After that, she began shuttling from one foster home to another-more than 50 in all. Unable to get along with any of her host families, she ended up on the streets selling crack. She was a regular in juvenile court until a judge ordered her to spend a year at Echo Glen.

"I was real angry that I got sent up," Marcy says. "I didn't want to cooperate with anybody." But a few days after she arrived, she saw a group of other teenagers walking dogs outside her dorm. She learned that if her behavior improved, she could join the program. "Those dogs were in trouble like I was," says Marcy. "I knew I could give one a second chance."

Ringed by tall pines, Echo Glen resembles a summer camp, with cottages, fields, and an indoor swimming pool. But the 160 kids who live there—some wearing orange jumpsuits indicating they're a security or flight risk—have staff members with them wherever they go. The residents (boys ages 10 to 16; girls, 10 to 21) have committed serious, often violent, crimes, including robbery and murder. Most have a history of drug abuse, and 70 percent have been diagnosed with depression or other mental illnesses. Canine Connections takes on some of the toughest cases.

"These kids come in with the same kind of issues as the dogs do—abandonment, neglect, abuse," says Jo Simpson, 56, a longtime supervisor at Echo Glen and a veteran dog trainer and 4-H leader who modeled Canine Connections on a similar program in Oregon.

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