1300 489 873Sadly in Court many abuse victims including those sexually assaulted have trouble to tell their story or to testify against their perpetrators. It is especially difficult for children to open up to unfamiliar people in an intimidating environment like a courtroom.
In 2004 the Courthouse Dogs were founded in the USA, with the purpose to make it easier for the victims to testify and therefore getting a step closer to punishing the perpetrator. Specially trained dogs accompany the witnesses who won’t open up or who show strong signs of stress. The dogs are trained to lay down or sit next to the witnesses to calm them down and to give them comfort.
The dogs receive a special 2-year training program starting when the puppies are very young. The organisation in the US mostly chooses Labradors or Golden Retrievers, as they are well-known for being calm, friendly and easy trainable. Already in the first weeks after they were born, they get exposed to small stress factors to get used to them. Between 8 weeks and 18 months, the trainers take the pooches to loud and busy places so they get used to stressful situations and all kinds of different people. After the 2 years of training only the best dogs get chosen for the job in the courtroom. They must fulfil certain criteria, like being quiet and emotionally available for the witnesses. The dogs also have to be able to lay or sit down next to the witnesses for a long period.
The Courthouse Dogs have dogs working in Canada, Chile and in 33 States in the US. At the moment there are no such courthouse dogs in Australia. The main reason for this is funding. Training these dogs is very expensive and the necessary funding is not available. The alternative for the witnesses is to bring a support person or a personal item, like a teddy bear. In that regard a dog is the better option, as they are more legally neutral. The Courthouse Dogs see a lot of success with their program and hopefully it is soon possible to train dogs for that purpose in Australia as well.
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