MONTGOMERY – Carl Rothe was a burned-out New York City pastry chef looking for a new career in 2000 when a friend suggested he take a job with Guiding Eyes for the Blind.
Rothe took the job at the nonprofit organization that trains guide dogs to help visually impaired people. He thought it would be a temporary thing. But dog training eventually became his life’s work.
Rothe, a Montgomery resident, has worked with dogs for more than 20 years and is now executive director of Explosive Detection Canines for Puppies Behind Bars. The New York City-based nonprofit trains inmates to become service dogs for wounded veterans and first responders, prison dogs for police departments and explosive detection dogs for law enforcement. The puppies enter the prison at eight weeks of age and live with their incarcerated puppy raisers for about 24 months.
“The dogs found me and I never looked back,” Rothe said. “I took the job because I was running out of money and had to pay the mortgage, but I knew immediately that this was my calling. When you work with the dogs, you build a strong emotional bond and each one of them is special and they touch you deeply.”
Thanks to his education and experience, Roche has become one of the most respected dog trainers in the United States. He has helped train explosive detection dogs for the FBI, CIA, ATF, NYPD, Massachusetts State Police, and the United States Parks Department. Puppies Behind Bars recently trained K-9 Yoda, a certified health and wellness service dog that the Orange County Sheriff’s Office will use with emergency responders throughout the county.
Over the past 25 years, Puppies Behind Bars has raised more than 3,000 dogs. The prison program is rigorous and only inmates who pass a security clearance and are productive and well behaved are considered.
They must study and learn for eight months, and anyone who fails to score 70 on tests is excluded from the college curriculum. After that, the inmates work with dogs and train them.
“We’re not do-gooders, this is not a free pass,” said Rothe, who works with inmates at Wallkill and Eastern prisons. “It’s a tough program and there are no perks. But when you bring a dog into the facility, it changes the toxic, negative environment with the inmates and even the staff. I think it changes the prison as a whole, which is pretty amazing.”
PBB hosts information and training sessions for potential volunteers. For more information, email Tito Tyson at [email protected].
