Thanks to our friend Echo the Deaf Pittie Mix for sharing this story with all of us. We’ve had Angelyne in our DDR’s video section from the beginning of Deaf Dogs Rock so I was so excited to see a story written up about her and her human daddy. I think deaf dogs can teach children about patience and also about getting over their own personal challenges and succeeding. This is a great story to tell and it came from the denverpost.com
Photo by: Eri Bellamy, The Greeley Tribune) Angelyne the Amazing Deaf Cattle Dog knows 22 commands and visits dozens of schools a year.
Deaf Cattle dog teaches Colorado kids about patience By Sherrie Peif – The Greeley Trubune
VANS — When Angelyne started visiting schools a little more than four years ago, the goal was to teach children about patience, persistence, teamwork, focus, creative thinking and all those things that children should learn.
The goal was to make sure standard-hearing children understand their deaf classmates are no different. She’ll jump through hoops to make sure she gets her point across.
Recently at Chappelow K-8 Magnet School, she succeeded, exciting about 600 kids with her amazing ability to take food out of other peoples’ mouths, jumping through hula hoops, flying through the air to catch tennis balls and finding food under cups on the floor — all with a simple hand signal from her best friend.
But Angelyne is no ordinary deaf or hard-of-hearing instructor. She’s a nearly 6-year-old Australian cattle dog.
“I called the puppy kindergarten teacher and said two words I will never say again,” said Eric Melvin, Angelyne The Amazing Deaf Cattle Dog’s owner, about the day he learned Angelyne was deaf. “I quit.” Melvin, however, decided Angelyne was too beautiful and too important to give up on. He couldn’t walk away after taking her to a veterinarian who specialized in special-needs animals.
In one year, Melvin taught Angelyne 11 hand signs for simple commands such as sit, lie down and come. She now knows 22 signs.
“She has taught me that we are all people first,” Melvin said. “We all have something special we can contribute.”
Chappelow brought Melvin and Angelyne to the school during national Deaf Education Week. Chappelow houses 21 sign-dependent hearing-impaired students for Greeley-Evans School District 6 in pre- kindergarten through eighth grade.
Since 2007, Melvin and Angelyne have been traveling the state teaching others about what a little bit of compassion and a lot of hard work and persistence can do. Melvin started out the first year with 12 presentations. He is on track to perform at 60 schools this year.
Read more: Deaf cattle dog teaches Colorado kids about patience – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19073413#ixzz1aNqyFjzb
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