Dogs enhance the lives of humans in many many ways. Not only do they give unconditional love and emotional support, but they also are eminently trainable to give specific help as needed.
Guide dogs for the blind are well known. Hearing dogs for the deaf are less known but are equally invaluable. These dogs are painstakingly trained by experts to aid the deaf in being more self-sufficient. People who can hear can often overlook how important sounds can be to one’s functioning and safety. Seemingly simple things - like an alarm ringing to wake one up in the morning, a doorbell ringing to announce that someone is visiting, a car honking to alert a person in the way - are not so simple for a person who cannot hear. Even sounds like a baby crying or a smoke alarm going off cannot be processed by a deaf person. Luckily, working with a trained dog can help a deaf person deal with many such situations.
Such trained hearing dogs can alert their deaf companion about many sounds that are critical for day-to-day functioning, and help with making them environmentally aware and more confident in general. Naturally, a lot of time, effort and expertise going into training a dog to do this. Not only are appropriate canine candidates carefully vetted and temperament tested, they are then trained for long periods of time. After that, once they are paired with a human companion, the trainer often works with the human and dog team to teach them to communicate clearly with each other. The deaf person has to be responsible for taking excellent care of the dog from then on. That includes good health care for the dog. The other thing to ensure is that the dog does not get lost! New devices such as the Findster Duo+ may be useful in this context.
Once the bond between the human and the dog has been formed, they can both enjoy each other’s company and spend many happy and fulfilling years together.
