Dogs needed to train as Hearing Dogs

This has been doing the rounds on a few forums so thought I would post this to try and help them in their cause......

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People www.hearingdogs.org.uk

We are looking for dogs as below:
Ages: 8-12 weeks or 1-3 years.
Breeds: preferably looking for:
Spaniels and their crosses
Retrievers and their crosses e.g. labs, goldies etc
Toy types and their crosses e.g. poodles, shih tzus, llasa’s etc
Mongrels of no identifiable breed
We do not take guarding breeds such as German Shepherds or Rottweillers, or fighting breeds such as Staffies. We also don’t take pure bred collies.

The whole list of breed types most suited if you need it is below - we would consider any crosses of:

Bichon Frise
Bolognese
Cavalier King Charles
Curly Coated Retriever
English Cocker Spaniel
Field Spaniel
Flat Coat Retriever
German Spitz
Golden Retriever
Japanese Spitz
Labradoodle
Lab x Goldie
Labradors
Lhasa Apso
Maltese
Miniature Poodle
Toy Poodle
Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever
Papillion
Pomeranian
Pug
Shih Tzu
Tibetan Spaniel
Mongrels of no identifiable breed

The vital age for social input is 8-12 weeks. After that if they do not get a good up bringing they are not so easy to work with. After 1 year they are old enough to be mature enough for their true characters to be formed and we will have the best chance to assess their behaviour and then retrain them if possible.

Perhaps if the HD organisation understood dogs more and used successful models that work across Europe using breeds HD regard as unsuitable it would help them a lot...

I think its possible to determine a dogs 'temperament' as early as when its suckling on its mother, puppies that feed from the middle teets or just either side are most likely to be unsuitable (too strong a will), puppies that feed on the very outside are also most likely to be unsuitable (too nervous ).....the ones most likely suitable are the puppies feeding in the middle of either side of the middle teet.

These types tend to be natural followers and be more open and receptive to the training required.....

It would require the management at HD to be more open minded than they currently are, my experience of them is that they have become very set in their ways.