I went to the puppy parade at the Trafford Centre - here's how you can get a dog with all expenses paid

We met Penny Porter who works for Hearing Dogs for Deaf people to tell us a little bit more about their work, she said: “Hearing Dogs is a charity and we train dogs to alert people to sounds that they would otherwise miss, things like: fire alarms, smoke alarms, door bells, alarm clocks and even baby monitors. Hearing dogs also offer 24/7 emotional support and companionship because deafness can be very isolating.”

The reason this puppy parade was held was to spread awareness of Deaf Awareness Week and to get more people involved in sponsoring a dog, Penny said: “The dogs are here to ask local people if they would consider becoming a volunteer dog trainer because we have an urgent need for volunteer dog trainers in Manchester and the Greater Manchester area at the moment, so that’s their mission today.”

If you’re thinking about becoming a hearings dogs volunteer, you’d have to commit 12-18 months to training your pup, but you don’t actually need any experience at all. In fact, you will receive classes, training and support from experts with all costs covered by the charity including: food, bedding and vet bills.

Penny said: “It’s a great way of having a dog in your home, which we all love, but without the expense.”

We also spoke to volunteers Chris & Brian Parsonage and Ken Ness to get a further understanding of their experience and journey.

Chris said: “It will be 6 years since we signed up and the reason we did it was because we lost our pet dog and we couldn’t do it again but we couldn’t live without a dog so we thought let’s volunteer, help out and change somebody’s life. So we’ve had three dogs [..] our last dog Hattie, she went 6 weeks ago to her deaf partner and she’s totally changed her life already.”

Ken said: “It’s not only our love of dogs but we’ve got involved in the fundraising aspect of it as well which puts us in front of the deaf people and when you hear the good that the dogs do for the deaf people, it’s worth doing. It really is, and that’s why we stay with it.”

The need for hearing dogs has heavily increased with people on waiting lists of up to 3 years.

Ken said: “The requirement for dogs now has gone sky high and we’ve got the dogs but we need people to train them, so the emphasis today is to bring people in to do what I do.”

If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer or donating to Hearing Dogs for Deaf People head to their website: https://www.hearingdogs.org.uk/