Susquehanna Service Dogs
The Dogs: Hearing Dogs
Hearing dogs assist their partners who are deaf or hard of hearing by alerting them to sounds such as:
- Alarm clock
- Oven timer
- Person calling their name
- Door knock or doorbell
- Telephone ringing
- An intruder
- Smoke alarm
- Other sounds that may be unique to the client
Hearing dogs must exhibit good social behavior (no aggression, no begging, etc.).
They must master basic obedience skills [sit, stay, come, down, stand, heel (on the left side), place (on the right side), back, etc.]. They must obey these commands on and off lead. A hearing dog can be taught to respond to voice commands, hand signals, and whistles.
In alerting their partners the dogs touch them and take them to the sound (except for the smoke alarm, for which the dog is taught to alert the partner and then lie down at the person's feet). They must alert every time.
All dogs are expected to perform these tasks without stopping for distractions – while on lead, off lead, and with the lead dragging.
Leave this site and go to a new site
Open a new window on top of the current window
Open an Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF) file in the current window