[News] Heroic Hearing Dog Honored

[fasteddie]

A tiny Yorkshire terrier and his deaf Bedfordshire owner were today celebrating scooping the Heroic Hearing Dog of the Year award after the dedicated dog came to the aid of a young family member.

National charity, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, has honoured hearing dog Fraser after he alerted owner Dawn Munslow that her four-year-old daughter had collapsed in pain despite only being with the family a few short months.

The award, which was handed over by BBC sports presenter Mary Rhodes at an event at the charity's headquarters in Buckinghamshire, is in recognition of the fact that in addition to their everyday job alerting to household sounds their owners cannot hear, many hearing dogs perform heroic deeds, acting above and beyond the call of duty.

In addition to being profoundly deaf herself, Dawn has three small children, two of which have special needs, and the youngest one is also deaf.

Today Dawn, from Houghton Regis, revealed she couldn't believe the difference Fraser has made both to her and to her family. Even though he has been with Dawn for just four and a half months, Fraser's caring nature, initiative and training recently proved just how invaluable he is to the whole family.

Dawn said: "One morning I was upstairs in a bedroom. My daughter Emily, who is four, was also upstairs and had gone to the toilet.

"The next thing I knew was that Fraser was tapping at my leg as if he was trying to tell me something - a bit like he does when the doorbell goes. This time, though, he was tapping me very hard and in a different way as if it was urgent, as if he knew something was wrong.

"I asked him 'What is it?', he showed me and I followed him. He took me to the hall of the upstairs landing to Emily. It was then that I saw Emily had collapsed at the top of the stairs crying in pain.

"We took her to the hospital and she is still having tests. The doctors asked her what had happened and she said that she had a very bad pain in her tummy.

"She had cried very softly and Fraser had come to her. She can remember him licking her face and then she knew he would go and get me. So she knew she was safe."

Television presenter Clare Balding judged the category. She said: "Fraser may be small in stature and only young in years but he has courage, kindness and that all-important sense of initiative that is so vital to hearing dogs.

"He has only recently become part of the Munslow family, but I sense that they could now not imagine life without him.

"He has learned parental instinct in an incredibly short space of time and knows when something is wrong with one of the children, as well as helping Dawn with her day-to-day life.

"He is not just part of the family - he is invaluable to it. Fraser is evidently a very special little person and will only get more so with age."

Dawn added: "I am so proud of Fraser for doing that because I have always worried about not hearing the children.

"My other daughter who is three has only one kidney, which is not working well. She is often very ill and cries. It used to worry me that one day or night I would not hear her when she needed me, but I don't need to worry now as I have my heroic dog Fraser."

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People selects and trains dogs to respond to specific sounds. The animals alert deaf people by touch, using a paw to gain attention and then lead them back to the sound source. For sounds such as the smoke alarm and fire alarm the dogs will lay down to indicate danger.

The charity provides a national service and no charge is made to recipients. A total of 74% of all hearing dogs adopted into the scheme are either rescued or unwanted and since its inception in 1982, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People has placed more than 1,200 hearing dogs.

For more information about the work of the charity visit the website at www.hearing-dogs.co.uk

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[hle_625]

What a truly amazing story! These little guys would do anything to save our lifes or protect us!

[Buddy_love]

That's wonderful and very comforting to people who own hearing dogs, it probably gains their trust a little with their protecter/helper!