Special “NEADS” Hearing Dogs: Choosing a cane or a canine
Written by admin2 on October 29th, 2009Filed under: Themes, Deaf Jam, Irked Videos
Ray Dobson and the dog he now calls Goblin both had a problem.
The little mixed-breed who was rescued from the streets of Puerto Rico needed a home. Dobson, of Orleans, Mass., was losing his hearing.
“My wife saw me kind of dropping out,” he says. “As people get deafer they get more anti-social.”
Both problems were solved when man and dog were brought together by the National Education for Assistance Dog Service, which trains dogs from shelters to assist the hearing impaired. Based in Princeton, Mass., NEADS has placed more than 1,300 hearing dogs all over the country since 1976.
Goblin does for Dobson what his digital hearing aid can’t.
“What the dog does for me is hears what I can’t hear,” he says. “She can hear the phone ringing, alarms, knocking on the door, when people call my name.”
The dogs chosen for this job have to have special qualities—often exactly the qualities that land them in shelters.
“The hearing dog is usually the dog no one wants” … Continue reading this article
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Watch NEADS most recent 60-sec Public Service Announcement:
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Learn about NEADS (National Education for Assistance Dog Services)
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