Underdogs Tales
This film started out as a community college project. I realized that being a screenwriter was a bit like being an architect walking around with blueprints and wanted to tell a story that people could watch and experience.
When I read in my local paper that a neighboring town had a prisoner dog program that offered a win – win situation, I knew that I'd found my subject. I started taking a community college class in documentary filmmaking worked with talented filmmaker Paige Bierma (who did the heavy lifting as cameraperson), and filmed alongside her. This proved to be important, because even with my amateur camera work, certain scenes would not have existed without a second camera. We went into the prisoner dog program with no idea of what stories we would uncover.
An interesting side note about the jail where we shot UNDERDOGS is that the first prisoner animal program was actually a program with chickens. To this day they have a chicken coop that is painted with the phrase "The Henitentary," and it made a cameo appearance in UNDERDOGS. It is my understanding that the introduction of this human-chicken connection made a big positive difference in the atmosphere of the minimum security jail. Our world needs more caring, and more positive connections.
It was a privilege to watch this win – win situation of inmates training the dogs with positive reinforcement. I believe the human-animal connections made through positive reinforcement training created the great transformation in the dogs' and the inmates' lives alike. Positive reinforcement training is an important part of good parenting skills, and I hope that the practice of clear, consistent communication with kindness can extend to parent child relationships and make a long-term impact on society. I hope you will enjoy watching the UNDERDOGS journey where inmates and dogs helped each other find their way back home.
HOW YOU CAN HELP FURRY FRIENDS
If you'd like to learn of ways to help animals beyond adopting shelter animals and training them with positive reinforcement, here is helpful list: