Over the last 30 years, IHDI has grown in many ways. Not only are we the first Hearing Dog program in the U.S., but we chose a unique path when we decided to adopt all Hearing Dog candidates from animal shelters. Instead of using breeders, we found that through careful screening before adoption, we could find all the dogs we need in shelters. Many rescued dogs have the perfect qualities for Hearing Dog training: happy, eager, loving, with people-pleasing personalities, and endless energy. More importantly, the dogs selected get a second chance at life and a new beginning.

I often feel like a counselor, helping our applicants and recipients. I learn about their need for a dog, then match and custom train a dog for their situation. Each person’s home and routine is different. Therefore, we deliver the dog directly to the new owner’s home and work with them and their new dog, to help the new team establish the all-important bond that will make them successful for years to come. I am very lucky to have been a part of IHDI for so many years. As a child, I accompanied my mother here weekly, and am celebrating my 20th year as an IHDI employee. This is a very rewarding position and I am honored to be IHDI Executive Director!

Thank you to all our lifetime friends that I have been fortunate to know and serve, to all those friends who have helped us build what we know as the best Hearing Dog program in the country, and to all the new friends I make daily. Here’s to another 30 wonderful years of helping the deaf and hard-of-hearing community and to all their special “ear” helpers.

Best Wishes,

Valerie Foss-Brugger

Executive Director & President

Although IHDI was incorporated in 1979, much thought and study went into the program years before. My mother, Martha Foss, was a co-founder of IHDI and also one of the four women who participated in a four-year pilot study from 1975-1979, to create a method of training dogs to assist persons with hearing loss. Prior to this time, no dogs had been trained to assist the deaf, although many canines work naturally for their owners. Following the lead of dog trainer, Agnes McGrath, Mom and two others; Emlynn Wood and Sandi Sterker spearheaded the first Hearing Dog training program and codified a method by which dogs could be trained and then placed in the home of a hearing impaired individual to alert them to the sounds around them.

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