Do you have a beloved pet that rides with you on your route? It’s nice to have your buddy with you, and Pete Kleckner brings his 14 year old German Shepherd/Akita “Snickers” with him wherever he goes. Snickers is not only Pete’s trusted companion but serves as Pete’s “ears” because Pete suffers from hearing loss. Kleckner was diagnosed with a severe sloping hearing loss at the age of 11.
Snickers was trained to respond to five different sounds: door knocks, alarm clocks, fire alarms, intruders and a land line telephone. But that’s not all. Whenever Pete is at a truck stop, his beloved Snickers will alert him to any sounds outside that he doesn’t like by barking and placing his paw on him.
Pete has to wear two hearing aids and the DOT requires that he also has fresh batteries with him at all times. Pete says he enjoys asking the inspectors if they think they’re job is done if they haven’t asked to see the fresh batteries.
Sadly, dogs age faster than we do, and Snickers is getting older. So Pete is currently training a 19 month old yellow Lab to take Snickers’ job when he retires.
By law, Kleckner is free to take his service dog everywhere with him but he says he rarely takes him on the shipping docks because “it’s too cold for him out there.” Clearly Pete loves Snickers as much as Snickers loves him.
Pete went onto say that Snickers goes beyond helping him hear. “She calms me down and keeps my anxiety at bay too,” he says. “Justice for Snickers,” is a book that chronicles Snickers’ adventurous life on the road with Pete and it will be available this summer.
[h/t: Overdrive]