Talk on Hearing Dogs for the Deaf at Hamilton Rotary

Aug 28 2008 by Margaret Shaw, Hamilton Advertiser

HAMILTON Rotary welcomed Margaret Arthur as guest speaker at their last meeting.

Margaret gave a talk on Hearing Dogs for the Deaf. Having previously worked as a fund-raiser for the charity, she is now a beneficiary, with Dennis, a Japanese Chin, acting as her ears.

Margaret explained that the idea of hearing dogs came from America and was started in this country by a retired police dog handler 26 years ago. The charity now has two centres and 1500 dogs.

Of the dogs chosen, 70 per cent. come from rescue centres, 15 per cent from dog owners and 15 per cent from breeders.

All dogs are given a simple test during the selection process to see if they have sufficiently sensitive hearing and will react appropriately to sounds.

The process starts when the hard-of-hearing person first meets the dog. It takes around six months to train a dog to recognise the many different sounds that the hard-of-hearing person wishes it to respond to.

Once the dog is trained, the new owner will spend a week with it to create the required relationship. This also allows trainers to observe how the dog responds to sounds and how the new owner and dog react.

Gordon Hart proposed the vote of thanks at the end of an interesting talk.

On Thursday, the Rotary clubs of Hamilton and Strathaven enjoyed their annual bowling match at the Hamilton Caledonian green, with Hamilton winning narrowly.