You are no doubt familiar with Seeing-Eye Dogs, which are guide dogs used by blind people to help them get around more easily. You might have even heard of Seeing-Eye Ponies (or “Guide Horses”) and Helper Monkeys, too. But did you know that there are Hearing Dogs used by Deaf people?
I didn’t know that Hearing Dogs existed until the Hearing Loss Association of America convention last summer. There, Brandt and I saw over a dozen Hearing Dogs, wearing their orange vests, ranging from a tiny Pomeranian to a large Golden Retriever. I then learned a lot more about Hearing Dogs in my Hearing Loss Support Specialist certification class.
Hearing Dogs are trained to alert their Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing owner to a number of sounds including smoke alarms, doorbells, ringing telephones, alarm clocks, sirens, and someone calling the owner’s name. It costs about $25,000 to select, care for, train, and follow-up with a Hearing Dog, but the owner only has to pay a $50 application fee. Since the HLAA convention, I have met several people who have gained confidence in venturing out in the world since losing their hearing, thanks to their furry Hearing companion.
Brandt and I aren’t really dog people, so he’s not planning on getting a Hearing Dog. Unfortunately cats aren’t trainable to alert their owners to specific sounds, but our kitty, Cupcake, does alert Brandt to one thing—she lets him know when I get home.
Our living room is off to the right when you walk in the house from the garage, and the couch is on the inside wall of the garage. When I get home from ASL class, the grocery store, etc., Cupcake will jump up on the arm of the couch and start meowing at the door to the garage. Even with his hearing aids in, Brandt can’t hear the garage door going up, but Cupcake sure can. This is a relatively new trick that she has developed, but she has been very consistent with it since she started doing it last year. It’s not as helpful as alerting him to the smoke alarm or having his name called, but, it keeps him from jumping out of his skin when I burst through the door unexpectedly.
I don’t have a picture yet of Cupcake in her “Mommy’s home!!” position, but here’s one of her sitting on the other arm of the couch, next to Brandt’s recliner. She was mad that my cereal bowl was in her way, so she put her tummy in the bowl and laid down anyway:
How did I know about those dogs before you did?!
ReplyDeleteIt's neat about your kitty though-She's excited for mommy! As for training her... I've heard of cats that go absolutely bonkers every time they heard a can-opener. (this was before pull-top cat food containers) I'd say with the right conditioning - namely every time Cupcake heard the smoke alarm if Brandt was there to give her a treat, she might be trained to seak him out for hte alarm... but then again he could just end up with a cat stalking him for nibbles....
You're more of a dog-person than I am, maybe that's why you'd heard of Hearing Dogs first? ;-)
ReplyDeleteCupcake goes crazy for the sound of her tartar-control snacks. I just shake the bag and she comes running, no matter where in the house she is. And she can tell between that bag and her regular food bag, which is not at all exciting.
Generally when she hears an alarm, she freaks out and runs around the house trying to get away from it...