People want their dog to be a friend, not afraid.

But sometimes, fear from life at a puppy mill or hoarder’s home can grip a dog so tightly it shakes, bites or growls when freed.

Until now, it was up to animal shelters to ease the fears, knowing if they didn’t, euthanasia was the likely alternative. But this week, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals opens its Behavioral Rehabilitation Center at St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center in Madison, N.J.

Dogs rescued from puppy mills and hoarders will arrive there from shelters across the country as well as from seizures involving the ASPCA.

Kristen Collins, of ASPCA, says the center, a two-year research project, is the first “dedicated strictly to providing rehabilitation for dogs that are victims of animal cruelty.”