My Doggy News On 05/01/2008
Posted by Adopt A Dog! on
May 1, 2008
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Abandoned dogs set to serve deaf
A Tokyo-based nonprofit organization will open a facility Friday in Yokohama to train abandoned dogs to become service dogs for the deaf, and use socially isolated young people cocooned at home to become hearing dog trainers.
Service dogs for the deaf assist the daily lives of the hearing impaired by such actions as informing caretakers about ringing doorbells and fire alarms.
Large breeds such as Labrador retrievers are most suitable as guide dogs for the blind. However, because dogs to assist the deaf are usually employed indoors, smaller breeds are preferable. Even so, any breed can be trained for the purpose.
According to the Guide Dog and Service Dog Association of Japan, which will launch the training facility Friday, only 18 service dogs for the deaf were in service nationwide as of the end of March. This was only five more than when the law concerning dogs to assist the disabled came into force five years ago.
However, the association believes about 10,000 hearing-impaired people nationwide are hoping to be assigned a hearing dog.
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Government to continue using sniffer dogs in federal facilities
Canadians will continue to see scent-tracking dogs doing random searches at airports and lawmakers are considering new ways for canines to sniff out other public places, says Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.
With a trained Labrador retriever named Shelly at his side, Day held a news conference Wednesday at the Ottawa airport to warn the public that two rulings from the Supreme Court of Canada last week do not amount to a licence to carry illicit drugs and other contraband in public places.
The decisions cleared an Ontario high school student and a Vancouver man of drug charges on the grounds that random sniffer-dog searches violated the Charter of Rights protection against unreasonable search and seizure in a school and bus depot, respectively.