[MacGyverOnline]

I’d never heard of a hearing dog for the deaf until I meet a person collecting donations for them at my local supermarket today.

The dogs are trained to alert and take their owner to various sounds, such as a knock at the door, glass breaking (break in) smoke detector sounding etc.

They paw the owner to get attention (or wake them up) and then perform certain actions to tell the owner what the sound is.

I found this web site which has more information.

It seems like a really good idea to me, it’s a pity they are not as widely know as seeing eye dogs for the blind.

[Murdoc]

It's a great idea.. If the blind have seeing eye dogs, why not hearing dogs for the deaf?

[Lothithil]

When you think about it... it makes perfect sense!

Dogs have been helping us hear things for ages.

[Stupid Little Genius]

i met a lady with a hearing dog the other day^^ he told her when the train was coming and when a stop was anounced he was a lovely doggy^^ he was allowed to say hello to me

i think hearing dogs are a fantastic idea and more poeple should be able to have acess to them^^ but there are so few... it's sad...

[MacGyverGrrl]

There are also service dogs that help people in wheelchairs and such by fetching them things, pulling their chairs, carrying things for them, etc.

These dogs perform a great service. It is too bad that there aren't more of them. Another way people can help these organizations is to volunteer to raise a puppy for them. You are given a puppy to care for and start training in basic obedience and when the dog is 2 years old it goes back to the agency for advanced service training. Some of the kids in our 4H club were raising service dogs as a 4H community service project.

[MacNymph]

The Westminster's Dog Show was on after the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade today. In it they did a piece on one of the dogs being shown that was also a therapy dog. She goes around to verteran hospitals loaded with the boys coming back from Iraq and Afganistan.

I'll have to finish later. Vaclemped.

[Pseodonym]

It's pretty amazing how much dogs can do, they are really useful animals...and adorable too! They are great creatures. Dogs can help the blind see, and the deaf hear, get things for people, protect your house, find drugs, find people, find bombs, and probably quite a bit of other stuff that I can't think off at the moment. If you can't tell, I am most deffinately a dog person.