Book review: ‘Second Chances’

Second Chances: The Transformative Relationship Between Incarcerated Youth and Shelter Dogs by Joan K. Dalton. Purdue University Press, 2025. Softcover, 202 pages.

Ordering information

Let’s begin this review with full disclosure: My second guide dog, Greta, spent the first year of her life in a prison as part of an organization called Puppies Behind Bars. Matched with an inmate, she learned basic cues and other skills before embarking on formal training as a guide dog. So, in addition to having a soft spot in my heart for such training programs, I have a fairly good understanding of how these programs benefit both the dogs and the people who raise them.  

With these thoughts in mind, I was especially pleased to receive a copy of Joan Dalton’s intriguing memoir Second Chances: The Transformative Relationship Between Incarcerated Youth and Shelter Dogs.  

While working as an educator in a correctional facility for young men between the ages of 14 and 25 during the early 1990s, the author initiated Project Pooch. Drawing upon her experience of emotional abuse as a child and how animals were able to reach her despite the trauma, Joan believed that matching inmates with shelter dogs in need of behavioral training would be beneficial to both.  

Met initially with more resistance than acceptance, she, with the backing of her supervisor, started a pilot project with a handful of teams. As the program got underway, the inmates learned not only about canine behavior but also about patience, empathy, anger management, and other social skills. Peppered throughout the book are stories about many of the teams, often told in the inmates’ own voices.  

With personnel changes and financial difficulties, Joan did everything in her power, including selling her house, to keep the project she believed in afloat. In the ensuing decades, other such projects have come into existence. But, in this look into her groundbreaking program, Joan presents a comprehensive examination of one of the pioneering programs in this field with clarity, honesty, and empathy.

Are you the author or publisher of a book about animals that you would like considered for review? Please send the details to editor@bestfriends.org.

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.