LOCKPORT, N.Y. — Rick is a very good boy - just ask anybody in the Niagara County Jail.

"Rick is a great dog. He’s a people person," said John Maye, an inmate from Niagara Falls. "He gets along with everybody. He gets along with everybody."

Rick is more than just the Sabres team dog; the Newfoundland Lab mix is training with inmates to become a service dog for a local veteran.

"He’s got to obey. He’s got to know his commands," said John Knoph, Rick's lead trainer. "He’s coming from jail and he’s going to the veteran’s home. Whether the veteran lives by himself, or with his wife, or if he has children."

Rick is an adorable work in progress.

"A lot of him is Newfie. He’s mixed with a lab, so he’s a high-energy dog," said Knoph. "And the Newfie, so he’s got a little stubbornness to him, but the energy’s coming from the lab."

Rick is the most famous of the four dogs in the WNY Heroes program, Pawsitive for Heroes. The goal is to help train service dogs for veterans and give job skills to inmates for when they leave. 

"It’s a great education they get about dog training, so when they do leave the facility, they have some knowledge on training the dog," said Knoph. "They have learned quite a bit about dog training, dog handling, and how to control a dog."

Rick's energy and occasional stubbornness belie a huge amount of progress. 

"He’s a totally different dog," says Knoph. "Just his obedience. He’s a puppy. What he’s seeing with the Sabres, he did not one time want to step through the front door."

Rick has four or five more months of training, but he's already met the veteran he will serve. You can watch Rick's first meeting with Chris Kankiewicz, a Coast Guard veteran, here.