When the dog
jumped on his bed the old man pushed it away
irritably, annoyed at being disturbed in the
early hours of the morning and oblivious to the
shrill alarm. Then the dog pulled his arm and he
awoke to see smoke seeping under the bedroom
door.
That elderly
Victorian was one of several deaf Australians
who owe their escape from death in burning
houses to dogs trained to act as their ears by
the Lions Hearing Dogs Centre.
Many deaf mothers
sleep with their hands touching their babies so
the children's movements can wake them if they
start crying. But they don't need to resort to
this awkward and unreliable method if they keep
a dog trained to alert them to a child's crying.
People taking
hearing dogs may only be partly deaf and able to
use telephones with sound enhancement fittings.
Others are profoundly deaf, living in a world of
total silence. In both cases deafness is not
merely isolating, but highly dangerous.
Profound deafness
means you can sleep through the wailing of a
siren or someone hammering at your door. But a
dog can be taught to alert you to sounds needing
urgent attention.
Responding to
smoke alarms is a standard part of a dog’s
training. After attracting attention, the dog
leads its owner to the source of the noise.
Hearing dogs
relieve their owners of the frightening
insecurity stemming from severe deafness. A
Queensland woman became profoundly deaf so
quickly she had no time to learn sign language
or lip reading and her speech deteriorated.
Anxiety about fire broke up her sleep every hour
or so.
The experience of
living in a soundless world was so destructive
she was afraid to go out and was becoming a
recluse before her hearing dog arrived.
"For the first
time in months I was able to sleep through the
night because I knew my dog would get me up if
anything unusual happened. He wakes me when he
hears the alarm clock in the morning and I'm no
longer afraid of moving outside my house," she
reported. Today she plays golf and spends much
time helping other people with impaired hearing.
Ironically, all
the dogs enlisted for this service were unwanted
-- abandoned, neglected or ill treated by their
first owners and taken into shelter by the
Animal Welfare League and the RSPCA.
Hearing Dogs stay
with their owners 24 hours a day so they bond
strongly with them. And, of course, the owners
love their dogs and treat them as companions.
Dogs sometimes
start telling their owners about noises that
were not included in their training
In one of these
cases an owner reported that each morning she
puts her dog outside while she has a shower
before breakfast. She was cooking breakfast one
morning when the dog led her to the bathroom
where she found the shower was leaking. The dog
had never been taught to respond to the noise of
running water.
The same dog has
taken to telling its owner when her toast is
ready, responding to the noise of the toaster's
springs. Its all-round performance is so
remarkable that local Rotarians are making the
dog an honorary member for "auditory services".
With an average
working life of ten to twelve years, younger
dogs are now replacing many of the original
dogs. (Poodles, which can live to 20 years or
more and are among the easiest to teach, are an
exception).
Best viewed at a resolution of 1024 by 768 using IE8. YOUR Screen resolution is currently set to:
