Introducing Dennis Robertson and Crackers the Hearing Dog!

Over the last two months we have had the privilege of working with a very special team, Dennis Robertson and his Hearing Dog, Crackers. Dennis, who lost most of his hearing in his thirties, is very active in Kamloops and all over British Columbia, educating and talking to people about hearing loss, assistive products and hearing dogs.

Last month Dennis sat down and answered many of our questions about hearing dogs. In fact, we have over two hours worth of tape from our interview with him. Don't worry. We're not asking you to watch or read about it all at once. Instead, over the next few months, we'd like to feature a series of segments from this interview.

This month's interview segment is meant to introduce you to Dennis and Crackers. In this clip, he shares with you about his hearing loss and how he came to acquire Crackers, a Hearing Dog from Canine Companions for Independence. He also tells us all about how Crackers alerts him to different sounds.

Click here to read the text version of the interview.

We also have two other video clips for you to take a look at this month.

The first clip features Dennis and Patty, Crackers' trainer talking about hearing and service dogs.

• Dennis and Patty on Hearing Dogs

The second clip is a short, seven minute video made by Dennis showing Crackers helping to alert Dennis to the boiling kettle, telephone, doorbell, fire alarm in the home and emergency sirens while in the vehcile.

• Sound Identification with Dennis and Crackers

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