Question: Hearing aid breed

I am deaf in my right ear and will someday go deaf in my other ear. I am thinking that I want to get a dog that has been trained for the deaf. But I do not qualify untill I am completely deaf. I have a 3 bedroom house with .25 acre yard. What kind of breed should I get to train it myself to be a hearing aid dog? I want a medium sized one that does not have a lot of health problems. What do you all think?

 

how about a medium-size mixed breed dog you can train. You could adopt a young dog from the shelter and train him/her yourself. The shelter should be able to give you details about how trainable that particular dog might be....that way you'd be saving a dog in a shelter and giving yourself your hearing dog

 

I am sorry to hear about your hearing loss. THats too bad they wont let you get a dog until you lose all hearing. I watch a lot of the show and they train the dogs in prisons and most are shelter dogs, so they ran the gamut, Labs and goldens are great but they are bigger than a medium size dogs and because they are purebreds, they can have medical problems, I know from first hand experience with my lab. a puppy is probably the way to go even though they show training older dogs. for puppies they showed you dont want to pick a puppy that is aloof, look for the one that show attention. You dont want to get a dog like a jack russell that is smart but has too much energy. I think I owuld just look at a medium sized mixed breed

honeybear

 

I am remembering a little fox terrier (that's what we were told he was) we had when I was younger. He was very attentive to sounds and anything different in the house and almost cat-like in how he used his paws. He wasn't a "terror" though. I think he was actually a toy terrier and not a fox. Anyway, I think he would have made a great hearing-aid dog.

 

I have a standard longhaired dachshund who is trained as a therapy dog. Although, I must admit, there wasn't much training involved, he was a natural. I could see him working as an assistance dog with no problem at all.

He's pretty typical of the breed, and although there are many, many dogs, both mixed and purebred, that would be suitable, I would highly recommend a longhaired dachshund. They're smart, easy to train, easy to care for, and lots of fun to live with.

 

Ahh... Here's a bit of Trivia...

The First ever Hearing dog in Alaska was a Pit Bull named RCA...FYI...LOL

As for what breed??? I'm with most folks and think it would be best to get a pound dog...a puppy that shows interrest and a desire to please as well as some serious smarts! If you have access to a trainer of therapy dogs or of service type dogs you could have THEM help you pick a dog that will do the job you are hoping to train him to do... some temperments are good for it and some aren't... I do know that a dog that is driven to please for Praise or a toy is optimal... How to assess that??? I'm not so sure in a puppy...

I'm VERY sorry to hear about your hearing but I'm glad you're thinking ahead to a dog! I was watching a show about a family who dog a hearing dog... VERY neat what they taught the dog to do... He'd be in the room with the girl that was deaf...mom would call...dog would JUMP up go to mom...go back to daughter...and take her to mom... He was soo neat because...unlike some service dogs he was CONSTANTLY expected to do his job regardless of whether he was in his harness or not etc... AND he did it...faithfully... VERY neat but I would imagine it could be hard to train for... HJ probably would have been a GREAT service dog...she alerts me to sounds and strange things in a way that would naturally work well with training an aid dog I would imagine... You'll have to keep us updated on what you choose to do...

 

I have heard a lot recently about papillons being service dogs. For a hearing dog, I wouldn't think size would be an issue like it would for a dog that needs to assist someone in a wheelchair. Some of those dogs have to help move the chair and their owners need to be able to reach them. Although, I also know of at least one person in a wheelchair who has a papillon service dog. She was talking about the value of clicker training because it gets the dog to think for itself and try new behaviors. This is invaluable when something happens like the dog is pulling on a rope attached to her chair to bring it to her and the chair gets stuck. The dog was able to figure out how to get it to move and bring it to her!

 

That's true on most of those shows I've seen...well all of them...where they are training service dogs they use clicker training and it does make more sense for a more independent dog...needing to problem solve rather than just go through selected motions...

NEATEST service dog show I ever saw was a man with Parkinsons who got a Great Dane... The man would freeze up...he'd shuffle his feet and then couldn't move... The dog was taught to step back on his foot to get him unstuck so he could move again... AND the dog learned to 'counter" balance when the man started to go one way the dog pulled the other to keep him upright...he pushed too if the man feel towards the dog... It made me cry because the man had been confined to home for so long and had previously been very active...till his parkinsons got worse... He and his wife were both in tears explaining his new found freedom with his dog whom he trusted with his life... VERY cool!