Pendleton Correctional Facility gets new staff wellness dog

PENDLETON — The Pendleton Correctional Facility is always hiring, and they just added a new position.

Like most of us, they needed a morale boost, so they decided to give Chance a chance.

Chance is the newest member of the staff his duties include sniffing the ground, wagging his tail, and brightening staff members' days.

“He’s already super good with people. He loves everyone. He’s not afraid of going up to strangers. We do have the other animals, and he’s good with those. So he was an excellent fit and I think his name says it all. You've got to take a chance and he’s done real well with that chance he’s been given,” Warden Dennis Reagle said.

Before going to the prison in Pendleton, Chance spent 100 days at the shelter in Hancock County. He was a stray before that.

Chance will get some obedience training but beyond that, he won’t be a service dog — just a happy co-worker for the staff at the prison.

“Any place where you have people working with people having something like Chance around is going to make those interactions between those people more positive as they are having less stress and more of a diffusion before and after,” Reagle said.

Reagle said the facility has plans down the road to get a dog like Chance for the offenders, adding that the staff looks forward to working more with Greenfield Animal Management.