We're living in chilling times and so here, from this ever-reassuring column is a story (enriched with the love of dogs) to warm the heart - and all of the other giblets as well.
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Jakey, a two-year-old border collie cross is one of Canberra's newest dogs. "He's been here 12 hours" his new owner RAAF Group Captain Margot Forster rejoiced to us on Thursday morning. She and her son, Matthew, have just brought him back from Bathurst - to be precise from the Bathurst Correctional Centre, home of the Dogs For Diggers project.
In our rather people-crowded photograph (in which we find politicians seeking to bask in the glory reflected by the barely visible Jakey) we see, from left to right, Matthew (recipient's son), dog trainer/inmate Chris, NSW Attorney General and Minister for Justice Brad Hazzard, dear Jakey himself, dog recipient Margot Forster and radiantly cheerful Bathurst local member Paul Toole.
Dogs For Diggers sees inmates training dogs, often unwanted and neglected dogs (some hitherto languishing in pounds, awaiting doom) to be "assistance dogs", painstakingly trained to be of assistance to veterans who, for all sorts of reasons, can benefit from the help and companionship of remarkable dogs.
I'm sure you can feel your hearts warming already, but there is more toastiness to come in the good news that, of course, this is also a wonderful thing for the inmates.
Forster, full of praise for the scheme (she and her special needs son Matthew spent several days at Bathurst as part of the hand-over process) explains that of course those inmates involved get not only the bliss of the daily companionship of dogs (each dog spends six months with an inmate, and dog and inmate even sleep together) but also gather dog-training skills. This gives the inmates a day-to-day sense of purpose and may help them find employment once they are free.
The inmates involved, she explains, spend ages training and socialising the dogs so that by the time the creatures are ready to deploy to Diggers they are especially amenable and amiable. The (low-security) inmates take the in-training beasts out and about in Bathurst, even taking them to shopping centres and getting them used to everyday things like going up and down in lifts. In fact (get ready here for the aforementioned inner-warmth to extend to far-flung, hitherto untouched giblets) she reports that it was while a party was out and about with some trainee dogs that the abandoned Jakey "wandered up to them". Endearing, he bristled (and we used that word advisedly) with charisma, and he was taken into the party's embrace. A stray in Bathurst, he's now set to be a treasured member of a Canberra household.
The assistance dogs that graduate from the unlikely academy of the Bathurst Correctional Centre go to all sorts of veterans with all sorts of needs. Many of the diggers have returned from combat service in Afghanistan and other highly dangerous locations, and are suffering physical and/or psychological injuries such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression. All dog lovers will know, instinctively, how the love of a good dog will be a boon for veterans like these. Some of the dogs are even trained (the NSW Attorney-General's department has sent us pictures of this, so we know it's true) to assist the wheelchair-bound, perhaps even helping to remove a disabled veteran's jacket.
Jakey is going to be an assistant and a companion for the whole Forster family, but especially for the Group Captain's two special-needs sons.
Not just any dog would have done for her family but "Jakey is terribly gentle" she reports, and extreme gentleness was just one of several qualities their chosen dog was going to have to have. And he is a licensed assistance dog and companion dog and so (a little like a guide dog) will be able to go almost everywhere and to almost any occasion (school sports days leap to mind) when things are a bit feverish and perhaps a bit anxiety-making for her boys. Jakey will (like lots of the dogs we all know, and especially English springer spaniels) radiate calm.
As we spoke Group-Captain Forster was only just back, with Jakey, from the five-day handover process/graduation program in Bathurst and was full of praise for the whole brainwave.
"It's just an amazing thing. It saves the lives of dogs. It helps in the rehabilitation of inmates. It's fantastic for defence members and defence families. And it's great for Bathurst too."
Yes, its great for Bathurst too (no wonder Paul Toole MP looks so joyful) because the dogs and their trainers do community service work by regularly visiting aged care facilities, and schools for children with disabilities and behavioural issues.
"The high point of the program" Corrective Services NSW Assistant Commissioner Custodial Corrections Kevin Corcoran muses "is the emotional handover when the diggers finally receive their long-awaited canine companions and the inmates realise the positive impact they have made."
And so dog-loving Canberra welcomes Jakey, one of the 26 graduating Dogs For Diggers created in the two years of this heartwarming enterprise.