Hearing Assistance

Hearing dogs, also called "signal dogs", "sound alert dogs", "hearing ear dogs", or "hearing assistance dogs", are a category of assistance dog that are specially selected and trained to assist people who are deaf or hearing impaired. more...

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Hearing dogs help their handlers become aware of important sounds such as doorbells, smoke alarms, passing traffic, ringing telephones, or alarm clocks. They also can work outside the home, alerting their handlers to sounds such as sirens, fork lifts, people approaching from behind, and a person calling the handler's name, among other things.

Hearing dogs may be trained professionally in as little as three months; however, most are trained for closer to a year. The dogs are most commonly trained to recognize a particular sound and then physically alert or lead their handler to the source of that sound. Other dogs may be taught to paw the owner for some sounds, and for other sounds, paw or jump on them but not lead them to it (for example, fire alarms). Dogs that may become hearing dogs are tested for proper temperament, sound reactivity, and willingness to work. After passing initial screenings, they are trained in basic obedience and exposed to things they will face in public such as elevators, shopping carts, different types of people, and so on. Only after that period of socializing are they are trained in sound alerting.

While many hearing dogs are professionally trained, there is a growing number of deaf or hard of hearing individuals who undertake the challenge of training their own hearing dogs.

Hearing dogs often wear a bright orange leash and collar to identify them. Some also wear a cape or jacket, which may or may not be orange.

In the United States, Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 allows hearing dogs, along with guide dogs and service dogs, access to anywhere the general public is permitted; state laws also provide for access. There are fines and criminal penalities for interfering with a hearing dog team or denying access to a hearing dog. The same penalities apply to a person trying to disguise a dog as a hearing dog illegally. Not all hearing dogs work outside the home.

Read more at Wikipedia.org