EDMONTON — Canada is aiming to turn criminals into dog groomers under an inaugural program offering pet-stylist training for Alberta prisoners.
Starting in April, the Edmonton Institution for Women will offer vocational training for would-be dog groomers, with the goal of churning out an offender who can become a “full-time, entry-level, finishing groomer anywhere in the industry.”
“An issue we’ll be having is finding sufficient dogs,” says Lyn Cardus, whose Alberta School of Dog Grooming helped devise the program.
Rated for 167 inmates, the Edmonton Institution for Women is home to both maximum- and minimum-security offenders. Inmates range from murderers to drug traffickers and, notably, the prison houses Renée Acoby, Canada’s only female dangerous offender.
Jason Franson for National PostStudent Alyssa Clermont watches instructor Jessica Malenchak trim a dog at the Alberta School of Dog Grooming in Leduc, Alta., on March 29, 2016.
The chief challenge with any in-prison dog-grooming program, said Cardus, is security.
“It sounds silly, but of course we have to use scissors and sharp implements,” she said.
Sharp implements have got the prison into trouble before. In 2013, according to a civil claim, the Edmonton Institution for Women was subject to a hostage-taking incident when inmate Serena Nicotine threatened another inmate by holding a jagged pop can to her neck.
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So the first five students will be scrutinized closely to weed out any women with violent tendencies.
A public tender issued last week by Corrections Canada notes that, after a 12- to 16-week course, instructors must turn out graduates “confident as a finishing groomer and able to obtain full-time employment.”
The program will indeed consume an extraordinary number of dogs; students need to groom between 100 and 150 dogs each before certification.
“There will be approximately 500 dogs groomed in that period,” said Cardus.
I would hire somebody; it’s not where they come from, it’s what they can do
Prison employees, humane societies, service-dog trainers and practically any organization with access to dogs will be offered free grooming to satiate the program’s demand for scruffy canines. The prison’s sniffer and patrol dogs are also soon expected to be among the most meticulously groomed in the Canadian corrections system.
As jobs go, dog grooming seems to be unusually well-suited for ex-convicts. There are low barriers to entry for any woman looking to go into business for herself and, unlike many industry-specific trades, a dog grooming shop can be opened almost anywhere.
Jason Franson for National PostJessica Malenchak is an instructor with the Alberta School of Dog Grooming, which has helped devise a pet-stylist training course for the Edmonton Institution for Women.
“I would hire somebody; it’s not where they come from, it’s what they can do,” said Brian Martin, co-owner of Edmonton’s Pampered Puppy.
Although the dog-grooming profession is unregulated, successful graduates of the program would be certified by the Canadian Professional Pet Stylists, the only federally registered body within the Wild West of Canadian dog grooming.
While the Edmonton Institution for Women will be home to the first dedicated dog-grooming program for inmates, the calming effect of animals has often caused them to figure highly in vocational training for inmates.
For instance, the Fraser Valley Institution, an Abbotsford, B.C., women’s prison, is home to The Doghouse, a full-service, inmate-operated kennel open to local residents.
thopper@nationalpost.com
Twitter.com/TristinHopper