Angus McDonald reaches over and bangs another pin into his map. “That’s 51,” he says proudly. Fifty one hearing dogs at work throughout the country. 

 


 


Angus McDonald with his dog, Peggy.

 

Angus is the Auckland-based Recipient Support Manager for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People. Together with his dog Peggy, he runs public demonstrations of  hearing dogs at work and he helps new owners get the maximum benefit from their new companions.

“So what do hearing dogs do?” I ask him. “I know about guide dogs helping the blind, but how do hearing dogs help the deaf?”

Angus laughs as he explains that the first mistake many people make is thinking that dogs for deaf people are deaf dogs. In fact, they’re the ever-alert ears of their owners, on duty 24-hours a day.

“My dog Peggy, she’s my alarm clock,” he says. “Six o’clock every morning she wakes me up and I take her for a run.”

So what else does Peggy do?

“If I’m expecting a visitor, she hears the door bell and comes to alert me by putting her paw on my leg. I don’t know what she’s heard – she could be telling me about the microwave, the oven, or I’ve left the fridge door open. I say ‘where?, where?’ and she leads me.”

Angus tells me about a family of four, all profoundly deaf, who now have a hearing dog. If the doorbell goes, or the dog hears the baby crying, it goes to the nearest person and alerts them.

“Even if the kids are fighting upstairs, she will find one of the parents and lead them to the trouble.”

For the most dangerous of situations – a fire – the dogs are trained to react in a specific way.

“If the fire alarm goes off, the dog comes up and alerts the owner,” says Angus. “But when you say ‘where?’ the dog lies down. That’s your warning to get out of the house, because you don’t want the dog leading you into a fire!”   

Angus, who is himself profoundly deaf when he doesn’t have his cochlear implant activated, conducts the initial interview when a request comes in for a hearing dog. He finds out why the applicant wants a dog, assesses whether the house and neighbourhood is suitable and that the new owner is ready for their responsibilities.

If the assessment goes well, basic training of the dog takes six months, including understanding sign language for commands such as come, sit and stay. Then the new owner spends a week in the training centre, bonding with their new companion.

After the dog goes home with its new owner, Angus keeps in contact and regular visits make sure the training is complete. After a year, most new teams are operating independently.

“Most of our dogs come from the SPCA, but provided they are good with people and good with sounds, we can train them,” he says. “Most people want small dogs. A lot of our clients are older women living on their own. They live in a small house, so they want a small dog. And the dogs are also a companion, a friend, so it’s important that the dogs are good with people to begin with.”

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People now has seven volunteers working in Auckland. Fifteen dogs have been placed with deaf people in Auckland and Northland, 36 elsewhere in the country and 9 are in training. The organisation is funded by grants, donations, its own fundraising and merchandise sales.

– Russell Joyce

  • www.hearingdogs.org.nz
  • This year ASBCT granted Hearing Dogs for Deaf People $35,640 to train three dogs for people in Auckland and Northland.