It’s the age-old image of an affectionate bond, a boy and his dog.
But as Buckley, a docile 7-year-old golden labrador, sat by a group of teenage boys Monday, their sentiments seemed to fracture that image.
“I belt my dog. You gotta teach ’em, you gotta hit him.”
“You want to train them to be mean. I slap his face with a towel.”
“A dog bit me in the face once and I wanted to shoot it, but I didn’t have to–my cousin did it.”
With the hope of nudging these teens toward a warmer respect for life, an unusual monthly Pet-a-Pet therapy program was begun eight months ago at Interventions, a residential substance abuse treatment center.
The boys are divided into three sets that rotate into the sessions, so some may attend only once during their maximum 6-month stay. The program is sponsored by the Hinsdale Humane Society.
“We emphasize respect for life and social skills between animals and the kids, to care about animals,” said Janice Pellechia, the center’s activity director. “A lot have dogs at home and they have trained their dog to fight, trained it to be mean. We talk about how kids are similar to the dogs as far as vulnerability.”
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The sessions also serve another purpose. “This gives them a chance to express themselves in a tender way with respect.”
Blending gentleness into their world can be tough.
“I’d rather have a dog that would obey me but at the same time would get vicious for protection. I want it to be trained to be a killer so if someone tries to break into my crib and my mom is right there, the dog is going to protect her,” said one 16-year-old.
But Barbara Bruns, the society’s therapy chairman, believes the program also helps to open up their world a little.
“This . . . shows that somebody else cares about them, that there is something out there besides the world they live in and the one they are in when they are abusing drugs because sometimes they forget about everything but that world.”