Hearing Dog Training

Hearing Dog training journal: Repeated yesterday's timer training with their morning meal. Still no intense reaction to the sound, but they are more focused on this game now. I would think that next lesson, they will start reacting to the sound by sharply scanning the ground.

Obedience: they know sit but not stay. On leash, they are now doing about 5 second stays. Worked on relaxing while on leash in the living room while other dogs are loose.

Janie can climb a chain link fence like a monkey! This is dangerous. She'll need a careful placement with no alone time in a yard, with someone who walks a lot and knows to be careful about boarding and other friend's yards. Janie wants to be with me, so she does not go anywhere after she climbs the fence. I'll be building a roof for the exercise kennel today!

Less barking, they are setting into their new routine of rotating quiet crate time while alone in a room without their sister or other dogs.

Hearing Dog Training: Our two new dogs, Pilar and Janie: Shih Tzu x Poodle 1 year old sisters, expertly fostered for 3 months before donating to HDP. They are not overly attached to each other anymore (thank you foster!!!) and do not compete for food (ditto!) so I could start sound training with both together. Most of the time they are separated so as to build a relationship with me. I've had them for 2 days.
Lesson 1:
-dogs outside with me.
-I'm holding a bowl of their days meal of kibble (they have high food drive, so I don't need tasty treats).
-I'm holding a timer, set to 1 second so it rings when I press start.
-I ring timer and at the same time, toss 4 or 5 kibbles on ground.
-I toss the kibbles from my side or from behind me so they do not get too focused on a hand motion. I want them to think the food appears on the ground. If they watch my hand too much I actually don't care, because soon they will realize they must watch the ground for kibbles.
-I say and sign "goood" at the moment they are eating the food (or at that moment I could have clicked, but I'd prefer to charge clicker separately. My goal is to have the timer sound reinforced right now when they are eating.)
-Repeated about 50 times, till all their food is eaten.
-They did not get full or bored, so I was able to continue training till they ate their whole meals.
Results:
-They stopped jumping up on me and running around the yard.
-They ended up by sticking near me, waiting for food to fall.
-Pilar looked at my hands less, Janie looked at my hands and up at me more.
- No visible association to timer sound yet. That takes several lessons usually, so that is OK.
Goals:
-they will associate the timer sound with food becoming available.
-they will associate "good" or sign "good" with getting a treat.

Ming has a great future for her program, because she is a creative trainer who is trying to make the perfect match with each dog and person.

"Different Needs For People From Different Countries:
Taiwanese"

by Guest Blogger Ming chin Lin

Last year there was the Deaflympic which is held in Taiwan. We took our demo dog there for the promotion. It was a brand new experience for me. We met a lot of people there and had chances to know what their lives were like. The fascinating thing is that people communicated with each other through sign language, no matter which of the countries they came from, or the different Sign Languages they all spoke. We got a lot of questions from our Taiwanese citizens: “What is a Hearing Dog?” “Are they all Labradors, like guide dogs?” The most common question for us was, “Can you train my own dog for this?”

After that, we asked people to leave their contact information for us, so we could go visit and interview them. It was really impressive to know what Taiwanese with hearing impairments need. That affected how I selected their dog from shelters. I visited a family who live in a building where there is a security guard. They said, “We need a dog that looks bigger and stronger, so thieves won’t try to get into our house. But the dog must not be vicious.” After that, I got a dog from a local shelter. He is a Doberman and Taiwan dog mix. He had a solid black coat, and is as tall as a large dog. Every time I took him out for socialization, someone always asked, “Would that dog attack me if I get close to you?” However, when you get close to him, he tries to be cuddly and put himself in your arms. That’s what I want, the appearance for my clients to make them feel safe. I may not choose a specific breed for my client because they look pretty. But I will choose a dog who may help my clients feel calm and secure because of their appearance.

We had another special request from several families. They are all going to have a newborn baby at home. That could be a pity if they cannot hear the baby’s sounds, the laughing and the powerful crying. They asked me if I could train their dog to alert when the baby is crying. I do know the dilemma of this. Dogs should not be expected to take the responsibility for the real life baby. However, I am still trying for this. Trying is not losing, right? Now I have a fake baby lying in a basket. I recorded the crying of my baby nephew through my cell phone. I called with another phone, so the phone under the baby will “cry”. My white Schnauzer in training was very surprised to hear that the first time. She ran and stood in front of the basket and stared at the baby. That gave the perfect timing for me to reinforce the “Baby” and the “weird sound.” After that, I can always take good pictures of a dog “Baby-sitting” carefully. To generalize the alert, I started to record different baby noises for my dog to alert to.

You will never know what people really need until you talk to them, and try something for them. That could be helpful or useless, yet you have to try! What do you think about these two unique needs?

New Hearing Dog Program Started in San Francisco – Hooray!!!
Over a period of 30 years the Hearing Dog Program at the San Francisco SPCA graduated more than 800 Hearing Dog teams. Then, suddenly and without notice, it was gone. Former staff, volunteers, and graduates decided the program must live on as a new, totally independent non-profit organization, appropriately called, The Hearing Dog Program.[ www.hearingdogprogram.org ]
Despite challenging economic times, and with only three part-time employees, we have already managed to graduate 9 dogs. Seven more are in training as of April 2010. Three cheers to Martha Hoffman, our Training Director!!! With very little money but lots of enthusiasm, we are determined to succeed. We look at this as a wonderful opportunity to try new things and improve upon the old program.
A new and exciting training model has been developed. Instead of holding group classes, placements are all accomplished using an in-home model. Of course, other Assistance Dog programs had already proven this approach could be highly successful. But wait, there’s more! Here’s where the real change occurred…Realizing we didn’t have kennels and probably wouldn’t for a while, we still wanted to train and place dogs right away. So, we developed a new training model that didn’t depend on having a kennel facility.
We recruited experienced, professional agility and obedience trainers interested in training a Hearing Dog at their home. Although they didn’t know anything about sound alert training, they were eager to learn and participate. Now dogs could go directly from the shelter into a home for their training.
Has this new in-home training model worked? Absolutely! Under Martha Hoffman’s capable guidance and supervision our dogs are better than ever. No more dealing with kennel stress, plus dogs get all the in-home advantages of living with a trainer. Dogs are now ready to graduate in about ½ the time it previously required while living in kennels.
A great example of our dedicated, capable volunteer foster Hearing Dog trainers is Blancett Reynolds. Blancett is a top-notch agility Instructor at ACE Dog Sports south of San Francisco. Between 2005 and 2008 she taught foster care education at Dogs for Diabetics and currently supervises a puppy-raising group for Guide Dogs for the Blind (San Rafael).
Blancett started with a Yellow Labrador “career change” dog named, Stacy, from Guide Dogs for the Blind. Stacy flew through her Hearing Dog training and graduated in May 2009. Next Blancett accepted a little rescued shelter dog named Mindy into her home. Although Mindy didn’t complete her Hearing Dog training, when we received her she was (unbeknownst to us) pregnant with a single pup named Patch. Patch is now doing very well in both obedience and sound alert training.
Since our foster trainer model worked so well, we decided to expand it further. We began placing some dogs directly into the homes of Deaf or hard of hearing people who had already had Hearing Dogs to undergo sound and obedience training. The clients were able to train their own successor dogs with our help! With Martha visiting at least once a week to provide instruction and supervise their training, our dogs progressed rapidly. Soon they were ready to graduate.
With two new models in place, The Hearing Dog Program is already fulfilling its mission of “improving independence and quality of life through highly trained Hearing Dogs” in an efficient and innovative fashion. We’re excited for the future!
See Martha Hoffman’s blog describing what typically happens during our training visits, plus training games to teach new skills to Hearing Dog in a fun way.
http://marthahoffman.info/blogs/blog6.php/2010/03/30/hearing-dog-training-visiting-skunki-at-her-foster-trainer-home

(Note from MH: Jack's Hearing Dog Clover Belle is a gentle glossy black Cocker Spaniel mix. She is now 14 years old.)

Recently a young girl stopped me in the store and asked me about my Hearing Dog. My answer was the usual litany, "She tells me when the phone rings, someone's at the door, my wife calls my name, etc.." Then when I got home, I got to thinking about it again. There's so much more to having my Clover Belle than that.

I think the biggest help to me is that I live without so much fear. In a study I read when I was in college, I learned that us senior citizens live a life in much more fear than other people. I'm 220 lbs., and 5'10" tall. Not much scares me. I don't think that I lived in a terrible state of fear before Clover came into my life. It was more like a constant kind of anxiety. Like the fear of the unknown we all experience. With Clover around, there is little that goes on that she doesn't tell me about, and I have felt more comfortable in day to day life. It ultimately goes far beyond that.

I have always been an avid camper, and used to backpack at least
once a month. Out in the wild of the High Sierras, I came across many
kinds of wild animals, and never had any bad experiences. The wild
sort of separates us from dangerous animals, but now that my main
outdoor stuff means mostly just going camping, I'm more likely to
come into contact with animals that don't really fear humans in quite
the same way. I must be more on guard.

On one such trip a couple of years ago, we arrived at our favorite camp site up in the Western Sierras just after dark. This place is very secluded, and we seldom see any people in the 9 days we camp. As usual Clover was out sniffing around while I unloaded my truck, when I saw her alert with a point up a near by hill. I sent one of my grandkids to get a flashlight, and sure enough, when I flashed the side of the hill, I saw the eyes of a mountain lion just light up. I was most afraid for the children, and the dogs we had with us, but Clover's training is such that she is not supposed to do anything but tell me. The other two dogs belonged to my daughter and her husband. They wanted to head up that hill, but Clover growled at them to make them stay back. I had everybody load back into the RV, and I grabbed my shotgun. I fired two shots in the general direction of the large cat, and it skedaddled back up the mountain.

I think the lion was actually coming in to nab one of the dogs, and those two Australian Shepherds would have probably charged that cat. That happening wouldn't have ended well. Instead it became just a part of another adventure. Clover alerted me to the danger, and then stayed by my side until I had everybody withdraw to the safety of the RV.

"At the very least, you would have lost a dog" the Ranger told me a couple of days later,"but you could have lost a kid if one had wandered off just a little bit." We never saw anything but tracks in the ensuing stay there, but every night before I turned in, Clover and I walked the camp perimeter together.

Clover Belle is a city girl, and in that situation she responded
exactly as she was trained to do. She acts the same way at home. If
something, or anything out of the ordinary is going on, she points it
out to me. She never acts with any aggression, as is a dog's nature,
simply because she knows her job. Next time someone asks me what
Clover does, I think I'll say she gives me more peace of mind!

The HDP received this email from Jack Byers. Clover Belle is a Cocker Spaniel mix placed with him by the HDP. Jack will be sharing Clover's adventures with us in this blog and on the HDP web site. (www.hearingdogprogram.org)

Dear Friends,

My fourteen year old Hearing Dog "Clover Belle" is getting on in years now. The level of communication we have developed with each other would have been unimaginable to me ten years ago. She has saved my house a couple of times. I have learned what certain gestures and behaviors mean, and she can not only tell me that there is someone at the door, but who it is! Faced with the inevitable, I've felt at a loss. It would be very hard to readjust to living without all the complex things a hearing dog helps me to do.

She is in great health. She still gets compliments from strangers who tell me that she is one of the most beautiful dogs they've ever seen. Her calm nature, eager smile, and happy tail speak volumes about her. It has truly been one of my life's most wonderful experiences having her in my life. I find her to be as irresistible today as she was the first time I laid eyes on her, and she showed me her smile.

She has never seemed to quit learning. All she has to know is that I want her to do a particular behavior, and she will start trying to do it. She has a remarkable understanding of her job, and I've learned to always listen to her when she is trying to tell me about something.

Going to the store is always a treat to her, as she has made many friends of the folks that work there. She actually remembers her friends, and searches them out at the stores and restaurants we frequent. On one such recent trip, she had seen her two favorite staffers and as usual had a little more spring in her step as we walked out to my pick-up. Then she got that "I'm worried" look on her face, and started crying and pulling me off in a different direction than where our little truck was parked. At first I wanted to make her come with me, but then I remembered a policeman and his dog we had met. His parting words to me were, "Always trust your dog!". I repeat those words to myself whenever she wants to do something different as we go along.

So, I followed her, and she quickly led me over to an SUV parked in the next row over. There we found an elderly lady laying face down on the hot asphalt. Apparently she had been overcome by the very high temperature that day, and fainted, as she started to get out of her air-conditioned Escalade. She was now conscious and crying, and had bruises and scrapes. A couple of young guys nearby noticed the commotion, and ran over to help. One had already called 911, and in just moments the paramedics were there. Clover just sat quietly beside the lady, and didn't make a sound until the paramedics' truck pulled up. As they started to exit their truck, Clover started barking, and wagging her tail. She wanted to check out the paramedics, before she would let them near her downed lady. We stayed close by until they got the lady on a gurney, and loaded into their truck, and at that point she barked and wagged a couple more times, and she was ready to go on to our little pick-up. That's my girl!

And that's why I always listen to her.

Thank you so very much for what you do. You all exemplify dedication.
Thank You, Thank You All,
Kindest regards,
Clover Belle and Jack Byers

Although written by an Agility trainer, the issues are the same for people who are getting a successor Hearing Dog, whether the older dog is retiring to a life as a pet in your home, or has passed away. I know this article is going to help a lot of people enjoy success with their second dog.

http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2010/02/second-dog-syndrome.html

http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2010/04/is-there-a-difference.html

This article is fascinating. The conflict in every trainer of a dog is, When am I fantasizing about this dog's temperament? When am I realistic? When am I too optimistic? When am I too pessimistic? When do I continue...or give up? How can I alter a genetic temperament issue?

Trainers who have a narrow timeframe to complete training in a Hearing Dog have less leeway than someone self-training a dog, but all the same issues come into play.

Susan Garrett is an intense, dedicated person, and I think she could bend spoons (or dogs) with her mind.

http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2010/04/is-there-a-difference.html

Lukes' Good Deed:

I've got to brag. I went to my 1st period class this morning, and my kindergarten student wasn't there. As I turned to leave, I saw one of his classmates crying inconsolably. Her pet turtle, whom she had planned to bring to show and tell, had died this morning.

I asked her teacher to see if she would like to lead Luke to the
front of the circle, for show and tell, and introduce him, as Luke, a dog learning to be a Hearing Dog. I had practiced the name call, "Luke, go get Kris!" all week, so I told her to say that, and then point to me. She did, smiling broadly by now. I patted my leg to prompt him. He came over nudged me and trotted over to the girl for
his waiting treat! All the kids clapped, and as we left, yelled "Good bye, Luke!"

Yeah, Luke! May you always bring smiles, where there were tears!

So many HDs are from small breeds or mixes, and small dogs often have early dental problems. I like this tip on training a dog to enjoy having its teeth brushed!

http://www.facebook.com/martha.hoffman2?v=info&ref=profile#!/notes/susquehanna-service-dogs/onyxs-trick-for-brushing-teeth/385671240527