The first puppy to be trained as a hearing dog in Scotland has been unveiled in Edinburgh.
Aster, an adorable 12-week-old black Cocker Spaniel puppy, arrived in the capital as Hearing Dogs for Deaf People launched a brand new puppy training project in Scotland.
She will be trained by mum-of-two Vicky Hope, 43, of Newhaven, Edinburgh, is delighted to be the first volunteer to train a puppy in Scotland.
She said: "My kids have wanted a puppy for a long time, so I decided we'd volunteer to train a hearing dog puppy who will grow up to do some good, as well as teach my children how to be responsible. Aster is amazing - she's so full of life and we've all fallen head over heels in love with her!"
There are more than 80 deaf people with hearing dogs living in Scotland, and the charity is now appealing for volunteers in Edinburgh and surrounding areas to help train a further nine young puppies.
Alex McQuiggan, partnership instructor for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People in Scotland, said: "We are delighted that the first puppy has now settled in to her new home in Edinburgh, and we are now looking for puppy training volunteers in Scotland.
"Volunteers are provided with all food and equipment needed, and receive full support and guidance from our training team, as well as regular home visits and weekly puppy training classes.
"Once the puppy's training is complete, they will be partnered with someone who is severely or profoundly deaf and give that person greater confidence and independence. Hearing dogs are life-changing and volunteering with us is extremely rewarding."
Each volunteer family will be required to care for and train the puppy with the help of a Hearing Dogs trainer for a sixteen month period, and the charity are also looking for volunteers who can provide short term puppy care.
1 in 6 people in the UK suffer from hearing loss. Hearing dogs transform the lives of deaf people by alerting them to important sounds they cannot hear, such as the alarm clock, doorbell and smoke alarm.
For more information visit www.hearingdogs.org.uk/scotlandpuppy or email volunteer@hearingdogs.org.uk
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article