Service Dogs

An archive of select articles and media coverage featuring NEADS Service Dogs.

Spectrum News 1: Massachusetts organization showcases special bond between trainers, service dogs

Devin Bates: This week is International Assistance Dog Week, and one local organization is showcasing the special bond their dogs have with trainers and clients.

Meghan O'Brien, a trainer at NEADS World Class Service Dogs, wanted to become a dog trainer because it combines two of her favorite things: working with animals and helping people.

Watch the interview here.

Hartford Courant: ASAP: 30 adorable Lab puppies need Connecticut volunteers to start them on their journey to be service dogs

Susan Dunne | Hartford Courant: The eight-week-old puppies from NEADS World Class Service Dogs may look like average frisky Labrador retrievers, but these cuties have an important purpose. The dogs will have careers helping people with physical, neurological and psychological special needs go through their day-to-day lives. They need proper training, however. The Massachusetts-based NEADS is expanding and needs volunteer puppy raisers as soon as possible. The nonprofit wants to recruit Connecticut residents to take the playful pups home and devote 12 to 16 months to turn them into disciplined companion animals...

Full story on HartfordCourant.com.

WBUR: Radio Boston goes to the dogs

Tiziana Dearing, host of WBUR's Radio Boston, looks into the world of Service Dogs with Cathy Zemaitis, Director of Development at NEADS, and KateLynne Steinke, former Paralympic rower for team USA, who has a NEADS Service Dog, Jones. Listen starting at minute 12:40 here:

Cape Cod Times: For Falmouth woman, service dog ‘has been a lifesaver’

Reporter Jessica Hill interviews NEADS client KateLynne Steinke with Service Dog Jones and NEADS CEO Gerry DeRoche.

US News & World Report: How Service Dogs Help People With MS

Heidi Godman, US News and World Report: Service Dogs offer MS patients comfort, companionship and a way to conserve limited energy. Read how Service Dogs can help in this article which includes interviews with NEADS clients and staff. Full Story

Worcester Telegram & Gazette: NEADS dog who aids Marathon bombing survivor gets top ASPCA award

by Elaine Thompson, Worcester Telegram & Gazette: A service dog trained by Princeton-based NEADS is the recipient of the ASPCA 2017 Dog of the Year award. The dog, Rescue, provides essential support to Jessica Kensky, who became a double amputee as a result of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

Rescue’s assistance for Ms. Kensky includes opening doors, fetching objects, calling for emergency help and many other tasks. At the same time, Rescue also provides Ms. Kensky and her husband, Patrick Downes, with invaluable emotional support and comfort that has helped transform their lives after the tragedy.

ASPCA: NEADS Service Dog Rescue is Recipient of the ASPCA® 2017 Dog of the Year Award

ASPCA: Rescue, a Service Dog lending support to a Boston Marathon bombing survivor, joins a brave fifth grader standing up for animals; and a nonprofit rescue group working to assist working military and police K9s as recipients of the ASPCA® 2017 Humane Awards.

The Boston Globe: The story of Rescue and Jessica, a dog, a woman, and rebirth

At the park, Rescue the black Labrador chases balls down and leaps with athletic abandon.

He came into Kensky 's life six months after the Boston Marathon bombing. Full Story

WBUR: NEADS Service Dog Meets His Match

by Robin Young, Here and Now, WBUR

Here & Now has spent the last year following Bailey, a budding service dog raised by the Western Massachusetts-based NEADS organization.

During the week, NEADS dogs are trained by, and live with, prison inmates (under the expert guidance of professional dog trainers). Then, on weekends, the dogs go to families. Bailey started his life with inmate Bernard, but after committing an infraction, Bernard lost Bailey, who was transferred to inmate Antonio.

In this segment, Bailey meets his new owner, Ashley, who has weakness in her arms and also uses a wheelchair. Here & Now's Robin Young reports.

Listen to the previous segment here:

WBUR: How A Dog Becomes A NEADS Service Dog

Robin Young, WBUR: Western Massachusetts-based NEADS is nationally known for its remarkable success training dogs to be service dogs for deaf and disabled Americans. In the first of a series, Here & Now's Robin Young takes a look at how a dog becomes a NEADS service dog.

The Boston Globe: Her decision, their life

Eric Moskowitz, The Boston Globe: They were full with newlywed love that brilliant Marathon Monday, fused in joy and then in disaster. Raked by the blast, Patrick and Jess would both lose their left legs. But Jess, harder hit, has held for two years now against the loss of her right. Everything seemed bound up in that choice.

The Atlantic: The Fight for Service Dogs for Veterans With PTSD

Rebecca Ruiz, The Atlantic: When it comes to treating veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, no intervention regularly receives as glowing reviews as service dogs. The use of service dogs to treat PTSD is new, though, and many of the findings at this point are anecdotal. Many veterans had eagerly hoped a pioneering study conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs would buttress their personal experiences with science that could support implementing widespread therapeutic use.