International Hearing Dog, Inc. trains dogs to assist persons who are deaf or hard of hearing, with or without multiple disabilities, at no charge to the applicant. The hearing dog is trained to respond to sounds in the home, such as the door bell or knock, telephone, alarm clock, smoke alarm, or baby cry. By alerting its owner to the sounds in his/her environment, the hearing dog restores independence and provides a sense of safety and security to the deaf or hard of hearing individual.
All our hearing dogs are chosen from local animal shelters. They receive 6 – 8 months of training and then are brought to the client’s home, where a trainer works for a few days to build a partnership between recipient and hearing dog. The time from application to placement takes six to ten months. The applicant must be over 18, have no other dogs in the home, must be able to care for the dog, and have a minimum 65-decibel hearing loss.
