Need ideas for our Juvie Visits

[Adina P]

Rosco and I have been visiting the local Juvenile Detention Center since early this year. We go almost every Sunday and stay for 1 hour. Our visits consist of 15-20 minutes with 3-4 kids in the visit room. The kids sit in a semi circle and I intro Rosco and then let them pet him, ask questions...show off his 2-3 tricks. Then they are taken away and replaced with a 2nd group of kids, and so on until we've gone through 3-4 groups.

The turnaround times for kids is 13 day on average. However, I've found there are enough kids who have longer stays or are repeat offenders that we see familiar faces quite often through the months.

At first I had topics ready to discuss with the kids: the types of dogs they have or had, training principles, how various collars work, how to be fair in training, and whatever else came up to hopefully teach them a thing or two about responsible pet ownership. Occasionally I've had the kids watch as I started Rosco on a new trick (but this ends up with Rosco focused on food [I don't do obedience training with treats] not the kids and I save it for when I'm totally out of discussion material).

There are frequently those among them who LOVE Rosco and enjoy petting him. A couple boys have gotten down on the floor and essentially snuggled their time away.

However, I'm feeling like our meetings have deteriorated into a chance for the kids (mostly boys) to chat about irrelevant things, their crimes, how much time they have left. I've tried to steer the conversation to positive things like "What do you hope to do first once you are released?" "What plans do you have for 5-10 years from now"--just to get them thinking and talking about their potential and not their crimes.

And then there are kids who just say things and ask questions for attention: "If I hit Rosco on the head would he bite me?" (to which I replied, I that I didn't know but I might bite him...jokingly). Or "my dog used to kill chickens...it was soo cool!" And other random things like that.

So I'm out of ideas for ways to structure the sessions and also need ideas for discussion and learning opportunities. Again some kids are there for a long time, but many I only see once or twice so long term lessons are not really an option. Any ideas ?

[20xlhzzaoccks]

I work with kids in an Elementary School and Steve came with me several times last year to do various presentations and therapy sessions. He is going to come on a regular basis this year. I did a presentation on stress and anxiety using Steve. I talked about how he had to take a big test and how he had to practice to prepare for it. I showed what he had to do for his test (CGC) I talked to the kids about what to do when they get stressed out and talked about some stress management techniques ( deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, visualization). I also used him to talk abut social skills and bullying behaviors. I try to talk to the kids about what they can learn from Steve like living in the present, having a positive attitude, and trying to make an effort to make new friends. I am going to a conference next year about canine-assisted play therapy. On the website www.play-therapy.com there is a book about canine-assited play therapy that I purchased and it has helped me to structure my sessions and come up with new ways to incorporate Steve into the sessions.

[Adina P]

Thanks Meredith..I'll look into that. The tough part for me is that they are so easily distracted and just go off on tangents when I ask them questions. Or they stop paying attention if my answer is longer than one sentence. So I need to learn to be a better "teacher" somehow. THey are like puppies themselves!

[20xlhzzaoccks]

Sorry it took me so long to respond I guess I didn't click the follow link at the bottom. Teenagers are tough, that's why I counsel Elementary School kids. I did work for a summer with court ordered teenagers doing anger managements groups. It was really tough at first but I just tried to be as creative as I could and incorporate music and videos as much as I could. I would let them have like 5-10 minutes at the end where they could talk about whatever they wanted if they could stay focused for the first part. I saw your post about the READ program. I am interested in that too, but don't want to over committ. Steve is going to school with me quite and bit and we will probably start visisting my sister-in-law's school soon as she works with kids that have Down's Syndrome. I have found that once people find out that Steve is a therapy dog he is in high demand. He loves the work but it wears him out because the kids are so high energy and he has to be "on" all the time.

[Lorraine Bromley]

I was wondering if it was possible to have one on one visits instead of group visits. There is always a hierarchy present with teens and much more with abused and troubled youth. They don't know anything but being tuffer than the other guy so being soft with the dog and showing thier softness is weak. I think that you could help them getting the most stress relief from loving the dog and getting away from their lives through your dood.
Some are incapable of love or compassion. A sign of sociopathic behaviour in youth is their abuse of animals.
I don't know wether your groups are chosen or are just a line up they run through during your time there. I would suggest that maybe the kids that show interest or seem to get the most out of the visits are given the chance. The ones that go to the violent talk and posturing for the others not be included in group activities with the dog. They could be tryed one on one to see if it is just being tuff and not letting their guard down then being alone with the dog would allow them to relax and enjoy the moment.
If there is a social worker on staff or available for consultation I would ask to meet with them to discuss what would be the best way to get thru to each one.
I am not a therapist or using my dog for this type of therapy. These are only my suggestions. I have had some experience with troubled boys that had issues with animals.

[Adina P]

Good things to think about Lorraine! I typically met with them in groups of 4-5 at a time. But I can see where one-to-one would be beneficial...the only problem is that I don't have more than 1 hour to spend at most one Sunday per month and that would limit the number of kids I saw...plus the turnover rate is high. I'll think that over for next year if we continue....we have quit for the year as I'm pregnant and want to focus on other things during this time and for a few months after at least.

[Andrea Casey]

wow thats some heavy stuff. Maybe the most theraputic thing you accomplish is allowing them to feel and just pet or help teach the dog. No expectations. They are probably inundated with demands and problem solving and just the unconditional love and freedom the dog gives them may be the most theraputic of all.

[Adina P]

The hard part is that their conversation naturally moves toward inappropriate things and for me to feel like I'm doing more than just giving them a chance to chat amongst themselves, I need to figure out a plan (if and when I decide to start again next year) so that they learn.

[Andrea Casey]

such a tough age. good for you for caring!! they need more people like you in their life.

[Adina P]

I like it. I just need to think of games for next year.
They LOVED it when we played the clicker game and one of them got to be the 'dog' and another got to 'click' -- of course I got in trouble because apparently nobody was supposed to go to the bathroom (the room I sent the 'dog' to so we could decide what behavior we'd get him to do). The bathroom was within the room in which we were in so nobody got to leave freely, but apparently that was not allowed. I didn't really get 'in trouble' but they questioned what was going on in the middle of our visit. The only downside to the clicker game was they really didn't learn anything deeper than the game...it was pretty much just a chance to be silly. Which is fine, but I didn't want that to be every single session and they did.

[Adina P]

At the long term facility in our state (far from where I live) they have a dog training program, but our Juvie's turnover rate is 13 days so most kids aren't in there for very long. I'll have to think about that Rally thing a bit more. They get very easily frustrated when they can't figure out something fast. In any case I won't be back there until probably summer of next year.

[Kyoko]

Hi, Adina.
I am thinking about few things....
1) Commiting some sort of crime is type of self-centered act - I will get what I want with cost of others - so, may be by using Rosco, they can learn some sort of empathy for the others. May be you can tie in the issue of dog fight since they may be able to recognize it well- violent crime is easly related to kids like that, sadly..... Do they think it is OK? If not, why not? Or is it just a dog? Or a tool to make money? Should Michael Vick retun to playing professional Football? Should he be a mentor to many young boys? Speak about hurting others including animals, etc....And if they are talking about their crime, you may be able to talk about how it was a selfish and controlling act that did not care about the others, including victim, their own family and friends, etc...
2) They may enjoy seeing that Rosco can like them and follow thier direction, too by having them spread out and take turn calling Rosco, and have him go to each one of them. Kids can see that you don't have to be mean and controlling to have someone listen to them....Usually, these kids have low self-esteem, too. So, having Rosco enjoy recieving treat from them, wagging tail for them etc... make them feel loved and accepted as well.
3) If they ask silly questions like if Rosco will bite them if they hit him and things like that, may be you can talk about why dog may bite, what does that mean to the dog, human, etc....Or you can ask what would be a need for hitting a dog. They may be custom to being spanked, hit themselves for the discipline reasons, and/or trained their dogs / seeing dogs being trained by physical punishment. How does it feel to be beat up? Spanked? Pushed around? Does the dogs feel the same way when punished physically? Going back to kindness and empathy....

Sorry, it is so long.... This is my area of expertise and I just got into it!!
Sounds like a lot of responsibility!

[Kyoko]

Sorry, I'm still thiking...
Or may be if the visit is only 15 ~ 20 minutes, they may be able to simply share about their family, their home, friends and things like that to just chat and relax....May be you and Rosco can simply be the listening ears....I am sure that they get "ordered" at the facility and not really given a listening ears....They may talk about the food they are being served and hate, or mom coming to visit, not getting along with the room(?) mate, etc....If you set up a ground rule in the beginning, you can prevent some of negative, or inappropriate stuff. My favorite ground rules are "4 be's". Be Kind, Be respectful, Be responsible and Be safe. The first 2 can be good for occasions like this I think....