Weekly Bulletin - May12th Meeting

 

 

 

 

 

Our speaker was Gary Hough, 2016-17 President of the Wachusett Rotary Club (and NEADS Board member). He spoke to us about NEADS (National Education for Assistance Dog Services, also known as Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans). NEADS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was established in 1976 and is based in Princeton, Massachusetts. Its Service Dogs become an extension of their handlers and bring freedom, physical autonomy and relief from social isolation to their human partners who are deaf or have a disability. 

 

Gary became interested in NEADS through Rotary. The program is captivating; the more he found out about it, the more interested he became, until finally he became a board member.

 

NEADS trains dogs for people with disabilities. It began with hearing disabilities. They’re trained to recognize when someone calls the owner’s name and calls his attention, to recognize fire alarms, doorbells, and telephone rings. Training now extends to a variety of disabilities. One program is service dogs for autistic children, which helps them become more social, more welcoming—in one case, within six weeks. The most recent program resulted from the Boston Marathon bombing.

 

NEADS buys dogs from service dogs for the blind. Dogs for the blind should be leaders;  NEADS dogs should be followers. If there ever is a problem, a staff geneticist will remove that strain from the program. Dogs are socialized at a campus in Princeton for a month, then go to a trainer in the prison system in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Inmates are carefully vetted and themselves trained. There are some 80-85 dogs being trained, for another 18 months, then handed over to “puppy trainers” in a home environment, exposed to different stimuli. If a dog “washes out,” it’s sold as a pet for about $1600. It would be the most highly trained pet imaginable. Meanwhile prospective clients fill out an extensive questionnaire, then a personal interview. Every detail about the home, family, disability, etc., helps to match the client and the dog.

 

Dogs are typically black labs, sometimes golden retrievers. Other breeds, even chocolate labs, tend to be too independent.

 

Question: Do trainers become attached to the dogs? When the dog is assigned to a client, he first meets the puppy trainer, then the prison inmate, which gives him a sense of closure to the process. They look for long-term inmates, for continuity. It takes so long to train the trainers that they’d like not to have to constantly train new ones.

 

Question: Are there other organizations that provide this service? NEADS serves the entire US. There are other organizations, but NEADS provides the best service, as attested by the ADA and veterans organizations.

 

Question: What is it about labs that makes them the best breed? It’s in their blood to please their owners.

 

Fair warning: people are welcome to visit the two graduation ceremonies per year, when people can share what the dog means to them. But it’s so heartwarming, you’ll get sucked into the mission of NEADS.