Name the Hearing Dog - and the winner is ...

OPAL!

Earlier this year Petplan Charitable Trust awarded Hearing Dogs for Deaf People a grant of £5,000 to fund the training of a new dog. We asked you to suggest a name for the dog, and we are pleased to announce that the  winning name is OPAL. This is Opal's story.

  "Opal was originally found as a stray in the Republic of Ireland - she was approximately 18 months old at that time. She initially went to  live with a volunteer puppy socialiser in their family home for some months until she was ready for training as a hearing dog. She has  passed her 16 weeks of intensive soundwork training with flying  colours, and now lives with her deaf recipient, Janet, in Wiltshire.

Janet is delighted with Opal, she has gained a huge amount of self  confidence and gets a lot of pleasure from Opal’s companionship. Opal  works very enthusiastically, alerting Janet and leading her to the  source of sounds, such as doorbell or telephone, as well as alerting Janet to the fire alarm. Opal loves going out and about and playing  with other dogs – but she knows when she’s on duty and walks  beautifully to heel in her local supermarket, wearing her hearing dog coat with pride."

Find out more about Hearing Dogs.