Puppies behind bars for training

Two more puppies are heading behind bars to train up to help people in the community living with disabilities.

Eight prisoners at Auckland Region Women's Corrections Facility are now training dogs as part of the Puppies in Prison programme.

The newest inmates, Hopi and Huia, will join the other puppies living with, and being trained by, low security prisoners who live in self care units at the prison.

The puppies, who even attend rehabilitation and education programmes with the women, help prepare the prisoners for life outside prison when they are released as well as learning around 90 tasks to help their future owners, Prison Manager Agnes Robertson said.

The programme is run in association with the Mobility Assistance Dogs Trust.

- NZPA