By Joan B. Guertin*
The doorbell rings. The oven timer goes off. The baby cries. The smoke alarm sounds at midnight. The dryer signals the end of a load. The teakettle whistles. Hubby comes home and shouts "Hi, Honey, I'm home!" These are all normal sounds that we in the hearing world take for granted. However, for those suffering from hearing disabilities or deafness, these are everyday sounds that they may never have heard or will never hear again. But, for many with hearing disabilities, there is an alternative. Just as Seeing-eye dogs become the eyes of the blind, dogs are lending their ears to those with hearing disabilities.
Hearing (or Signal dogs, as they are often referred to), are not as easy to distinguish, as is a dog that is obviously in charge of a blind master. A dog working with an individual in a wheel chair is self-explanatory. However, for the hearing impaired, an invisible disability, things are not as clear-cut. A dog and owner might be a working team and no one will know it. And since Hearing or Signal dogs are generally small dogs, it is often difficult for people to understand just what the dog is capable of doing for its owner.
Before I get into what the dogs are capable of doing, let me introduce you to two women on opposite sides of the U.S. who have two things in common. First they are both hearing impaired. Secondly, they both have been blessed with spending years with a Pembroke Welsh Corgi as their ears.
Jackie LaMarche lives in Massachusetts. Her story will be told in this issue. Sondra Douglas makes her home in Northern California; the story of her life with a Hearing dog will be told in the Spring Issue of the Newsletter. Each has shared their lives with a working Corgi for 9 years. Each has a story to tell.
Jackie and Lass
Jackie came to my attention through Newsletter Editor, Marian Johnson Your, who was the breeder of Lass, Jackie's working dog for nine years. Lass was co-owned by Marian and Mary-Elizabeth Simpson of Windcrest Acres. At fifteen months it was discovered that Lass had developed an undershot bite. Her co-owner, who also was hearing impaired, knew that Lass would do well as a working hearing dog, so she donated her to Red Acre Farm Hearing Dog Center in Stow, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, it was right at the time that the facility was experiencing financial difficulties and was shutting down. Lass was actually the second to last trained dog to graduate.
Jackie and Lass met in March of 1993 to see if they would be a good match. Jackie remembers thinking that she was awfully cute even with a bare belly and butt. Lass had just been spayed and had her anal sacs removed. It was a match, so Lass began her training with Angela Nickerson of Red Acres Farm. She was trained to respond to the fire alarm, door knock, doorbell and the telephone. In May 1993, Lass went home with Jackie.
Tri-umph's Travlin' Lass, Hearing Dog, at work
Living up to expectations, Lass became Jackie's ears. She was able to work Lass with verbal commands as well as traditional hand signals since she didn't lose her hearing until she was twenty-two, although many Hearing Dogs are trained in American Sign Language (ASL) for those who do not possess verbal skills. Lass and Jackie were soon a team. Lass excelled in obedience and she went on to become a Pet Therapy Dog. She and Jackie visited a nursing home for years.
Lass was a lovely black-headed tri-color. Her sire was Ch. Pennington Ramblin' Lad and her dam was Ch. Tri-umph's Titian of Cambrell. Jackie remembers seeing a photo of Rambler in the Complete Pembroke Welsh Corgi and blurting out that it looked just like Lass. Then she read the name and realized it should have been the other way around. Lass looked just like Rambler.
Lass was not the only hearing dog in the family. Jackie's older brother, Chris, had a hearing dog from NEADS so she was familiar with the training and the ways in which the dog helped the deaf in day-to-day situations.
I asked Jackie to explain the impact that Lass had on her life. She explained that it was gradual. First, Lass did help her regain the independence that Jackie had lost when she lost her hearing at age twenty-two. There was immeasurable relief at not having to worry about the smoke alarm, people at the door and the telephone. Jackie also described how Lass helped her re-connect with people because she was so cute and friendly that people would talk to her about the dog. And, as a result, Jackie became more comfortable talking to strangers. As Jackie put it, "It can be stressful for the deaf to talk to people they don't know because the deaf have to strain to understand the conversation. Lass made me feel much more at ease."
I also wanted to know about special things that Lass did for her beyond the initial training. Jackie explained that because she had been tested allergic to dogs, the doctor recommended that Lass not be on the bed with her. Jackie felt that it really didn't matter because the dog was going to be in the house with her anyway, so she trained Lass to wake her up using a squeaker ball and treats. Being a true Corgi, Lass would do ANYTHING for food! She particularly enjoyed cuddling under the blankets on Saturday and Sundays for a longer snooze.
Lass "on the job" at Jackie's office
Lass went almost everywhere with Jackie. In the workplace she was so well loved that Jackie's current boss referred to her as the Vice President of Human Resources. She was such a character around the office that everyone loved her. She alerted at the office to the smoke alarm, phones and door knocks just as she did at home.
Lass also led a very active life as a Pet Therapy dog. Jackie and Lass were regular monthly visitors at a nursing home where the patients came to look forward to the visits. One patient, who seldom talked, responded so well to Lass and communicated so well that the staff became genuinely excited about her progress. Lass was also very popular with the children in the Pediatrics Unit of Baystate Medical Center. According to Jackie, wheelchairs and med poles didn't faze her at all. She would place Lass on the patients' beds with a "blue chuck" under her to contain the hair. Once Lass walked right up to a little girl and started kissing her right around the respirator mask! The little girl was laughing so much she curled up into a ball and everyone else started laughing because Lass squirmed right around looking for her face.
Lass was Jackie's first Corgi and when she asked her sister what a Corgi looked like, she was told to think German Shepherd head on a Bassett body. The picture Jackie conjured was pretty bizarre. Fortunately, Lass turned out to be a beautiful Corgi!
There was almost no limit to what Lass could help Jackie do!
Unfortunately, Jackie and Lass only had the nine years. In June of 2002, Lass was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma. According to the vets, this type of cancer is generally found in larger dogs such as Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds. The cancer started in Lass' spleen and was fast and aggressive. All Jackie could do was keep her comfortable. Lass continued to go to work with Jackie so that she could monitor her. Her co-workers were just great and they even carried Lass up and down stairs for Jackie as she had recently herniated a disk in her neck and couldn't manage the two flights. According to Jackie, it was a very quick cancer and after a little more than two weeks she knew that it was time to let Lass go. It is a real tribute to Lass and her impact on the people in Jackie's life that when the time came, Jackie's boss and a co-worker went to the vets with her on the day that Lass was euthanized.
The loss of Lass has been devastating for Jackie. Not only has she lost her closest companion of nine years, she is now without the sense of security that goes with knowing that your "substitute ears" are on the job. Fortunately, with Lass nearing eleven years of age, Jackie approached Marian about a replacement dog so that she could retire Lass. At the time that Jackie journeyed to Texas to pick up Teddi Bear, she didn't know of Lass' cancer. The goal was to add Teddi Bear to the household so that she could learn the signal work from Lass while Jackie set about the job of training Teddi Bear. Lass' illness and subsequent diagnosis has slowed Teddi Bear's training as Jackie needed to spend as much time as possible with her old friend.
Marian explained that Teddi Bear, also a Tri-umph dog, originally dubbed Theda, hadn't worked out as a show prospect, but Marian had consistently turned down opportunities to sell her as a "backyard pet" because her special personality and intellect indicated that she had something very special to contribute.
To date Teddi Bear is in private obedience training with Jackie and a trainer. To be certified as a working Hearing (Signal) dog with Public Access privileges, Teddi Bear must be totally in control and able to move in public places with her focus on Jackie. One requirement that she will need to pass for certification are the elements well beyond what is required in the AKC Canine Good Citizen Test. She will have to be conditioned to meeting challenges that Jackie will encounter in her day-to-day living experience. If Jackie travels and flies, if she expects to take Teddi Bear with her, the dog will need to have that experience prior to Jackie traveling with her.
Jackie is already taking her into the workplace with her and she is adjusting well. Learning how to respond to the signals that Jackie will need to be alerted to is another phase of the training. It will be many months before Teddi Bear is ready to take on the job on a full time basis. But Jackie is determined. After having lived with Lass for nine years, she knows how valuable the dog's skills were. She also knows how different life is for the hearing impaired with and without those willing ears. And she has chosen to make the commitment to see that Teddi Bear is trained. She already is aware that Lass and Teddi Bear are two different dogs and while Lass will forever be in her heart, Jackie knows that Teddi Bear is a personality in her own right and their bond, while maybe a bit different, will nevertheless be strong. For Teddi Bear, it is a promise of a long life as the cherished companion of someone who really needs her.
In Part Two, I will tell the story of Sondra and her Hearing dog, Evie, of Sacramento, California.
*) Joan B. Guertin is the owner of the Springfield, Missouri based Common Sense Dog Training. She has been a professional trainer since 1958 and has been training hearing dogs privately for her clients since the late 1980's. She has owned and raised Pembroke Welsh Corgis since 1970. She shows her Corgis under Hi-Desert Corgis in conformation, obedience, and herding. In 2002 she plans to add Free Style, Rally-O and agility to the events in which her dogs will participate. Mostly for fun!
Published in the PWCCA Newsletter Winter 2002
Reproduced with the kind permission of the editor Marian Johnson Your.
25.04.2013
