Hearing Dogs for Deaf People

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People is a UK charity which trains dogs to alert deaf people to a variety of sounds.

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People
Founded1982
FounderDr. Bruce Fogle, Lady Beatrice Wright
TypeCharitable organization
Location
Area served
UK
Key people
Michele Jennings (Chief Executive)
Formerly called
Hearing Dogs for the Deaf

The Charity's dogs provide emotional support through companionship, and practical support by alerting deaf people to life-saving sounds like the smoke alarm, and important sounds such as the oven timer, baby monitor and text messages. Their burgundy coats also signal to the public that they are with a deaf person.

Since its inception in 1982 the Charity - which was co-founded by vet Dr. Bruce Fogle (father of Ben Fogle) - has created nearly 2,500 hearing dogs partnerships. There are currently around 1,000 hearing dog partnerships across the UK.[1]

In August 2017, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People merged with Hearing Link, another leading hearing loss charity.[2]

Service

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People helps people with hearing loss, by providing them with Assistance Dogs that can accompany them wherever they want to go. Their dogs are distinctive in that they wear burgundy coats with the Hearing Dogs logo, which also signals to other people that the person they're with is deaf.

For the first year of their lives, their dogs live with volunteers, who look after the dogs, introduce them to new experiences, and give them basic training, a process called 'socialising'.

After around a year, the dogs go on to advanced training, in which they are taught to alert people to sounds, called 'soundwork'. They do this by nudging the deaf person with their nose, then leading them to the source of the sound. An exception to this is when they alert to fire sirens or smoke alarms: the dogs lie down instead, telling the deaf person that there is an alarm, but not leading them into danger.

Since the merger with Hearing Link, the Charity has also been able to help people with a wider range of hearing loss, who might not want or need a dog in their lives, but who would benefit from assistive technologies, support and practical advice.

History

Hearing Dogs for the Deaf (as it was initially known) was officially launched at Crufts in 1982, as a three-year pilot scheme by Dr. Bruce Fogle and Lady Beatrice Wright.

In 1986 Hearing Dogs was granted full charitable status and bought its first property in Lewknor, Oxfordshire.

In 1992 Anne, Princess Royal became Royal Patron, a title she holds to this day, both for Hearing Dogs and Hearing Link.

In 1994 the Charity opened its northern training centre, and five years later established its southern training centre and offices at The Grange, in Saunderton, Buckinghamshire, UK.

In 1996 the Charity rebranded as Hearing Dogs for Deaf People.

gollark: Oh, and if you look at versions where it's "pull lever to divert trolley onto different people" versus "push person off bridge to stop trolley", people tend to be less willing to sacrifice one to save five in the second case, because they're more involved and/or it's less abstract somehow.
gollark: There might be studies on *that*, actually, you might be able to do it without particularly horrible ethical problems.
gollark: You don't know that. We can't really test this. Even people who support utilitarian philosophy abstractly might not want to pull the lever in a real visceral trolley problem.
gollark: Almost certainly mostly environment, yes.
gollark: It's easy to say that if you are just vaguely considering that, running it through the relatively unhurried processes of philosophizing™, that sort of thing. But probably less so if it's actually being turned over to emotion and such, because broadly speaking people reaaaallly don't want to die.

References
  1. "Hearing Dogs Annual Review". hearingdogs.org.uk. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  2. "Hearing Dogs for Deaf People to merge with UK Charity Hearing Link". hearingdogs.org.uk. 20 July 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
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