Puppies Behind Bars is a nonprofit corporation that was established in New York State in August 1997, with the mandate of training inmates in to raise puppies to be guide dogs for the blind. In 2001, PBB began to raise explosive detection canines and in 2007, service dogs for the disabled. PBB provides a unique service by simultaneously serving various communities very much in need: the disabled, law enforcement and those incarcerated.

PBB began in 1997 with eight women at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, New York, training five dogs. In the last eleven years, PBB has expanded to six other sites (4 in NY, 1 in NJ and 1 in CT) and now has 150 inmates raising 80+ dogs. As of September 2008, PBB has raised 12 service dogs that help disabled children and wounded veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, 83 guide dogs that work throughout the United States and 186 explosive detection canines that protect America and her allies in the United States and abroad. 12 others PBB-raised dogs live with blind children.