Whereas service canine is perhaps greatest recognized for guiding the blind, Canine Companions trains canine to do things like open doorways for wheelchair customers or alert deaf individuals to doorbells, hearth alarms, and different key sounds. Its psychiatric service canine assist veterans affected by post-traumatic stress dysfunction—waking them from nightmares, for instance. To this point, it’s paired greater than 7,000 canine with individuals in want.
It’s important to make sure that each service canine positioned is wholesome, and Kennedy—a veterinarian—spearheads the group’s efforts to breed canine with that in thoughts. “We wouldn’t place a canine which may have a life-shortening or a big medical situation that an individual might need to handle,” she says.
Kennedy additionally takes the lead in creating tech to assist Canine Companions’ work. She is a co-inventor of CanineAlert, a patented gadget that sends a sign to a canine’s collar so the canine can interrupt a nightmare when its proprietor’s coronary heart fee spikes. The know-how might quickly develop to deal with daytime anxiousness episodes.
“These canine can actually be not solely life-transforming when it comes to offering individuals with independence, however critically important and even life-saving,” she says.
An animal lover since childhood, Kennedy earned her undergraduate diploma from Northwestern College earlier than coming to MIT for her grasp’s in biology. “I discovered unbelievable mentors at MIT,” she says, noting that she notably loved working with Professor Hazel Sive, whose lab studied African clawed frogs.
The analysis was fascinating, however Kennedy wished to work in hands-on drugs, so she obtained her veterinary diploma from Tufts College. She then spent 16 years in non-public apply. At present, she is delighted to mix animal care with analysis at Canine Companions. “I had a ardour for doing one thing actually mission-oriented,” she says. “I really like the thought of serving to individuals by the human-canine bond.”
In further to offering service, canine additionally provide one thing elemental, Kennedy says: “Canines add unconditional like to the combination. They assist emotional and psychological well being for individuals and may be bridges to the neighborhood.”
