Hearing Dog for the Deaf

Dogs that help the impaired: Hearing dogs are an incredible help to people who are mute and deaf. They are taught to differentiate different basic sounds such as the door bell, the telephone, an alarm clock, if the baby cries, to be attentive to certain odors such as smoke and to alert the owner if there is a fire etc. Dog for hearing impaired respond immediately to commands by sounds or signs and they are able to respond to other needs as well depending on what those needs are. Guide dogs are yet another proof of the virtues and capacities they have to assist blind people and they do not cease to amaze us. They serve as people's eyes and they are taught to guide their owner to the place they need to get to safely and with great discernment, avoiding any obstacles that could be in the way. It's important to know though that these dogs are not mind readers and that this type of work is done through team work. Because of this, both the owner and the dog need to go through a training program together to learn this task.

Dog training methods: Since dogs have great facility to learn and adapt they are able to learn to assist in any function they are asked to, they can be taught to do a great amount of things trough training and through repeating commands until they are conditioned to immediately act upon being asked. If we want to teach a dog for example how to turn a light on, we would order the dog "Light, Light" and have him go to the wall where the switch is. The trainer would then command the dog to "Up" so that the dog lifts his fore legs up against the wall. When the trainer commands "Light, Light", he then grabs one of the dog's paws and places it on the light switch so that it turns on, and then congratulates and praises the dog by saying "Good boy!" These types of lessons will be taught to the dog over and over until he is able to do what is commanded when the owner says "Light, Light". This will be done in different room and from different distances.