Our talk today June 3rd was from Michael Lammas on ‘Hearing dogs for deaf people ‘ and he was accompanied by his delightful Accredited Assistance Dog Ron.

Michael experienced hearing loss 18 years ago following an operation for a tumour leaving him totally deaf in his left ear. His right side was also severely affected and he has had a further 7 operations.

Apparently 1 in 5 people in the UK has a detected hearing loss and Michael explained how people feel lonely, isolated and unconnected to normal life resulting in mental health issues. He explained that he had also experienced depression. He also explained how to identify if someone is deaf and also explored aids to help such as hearing aids, cochlear implants and lip reading skills.

Michael talked us through the process of training an assistance dog from Puppy to fully trained dog from general obedience and socialising to recall and play with other dogs. Lastly sound work begins with the help of clickers, and egg timers. The dogs are trained to recognise emergencies such as fire alarms giving a feeling of security for their owners. Should a fire alarm be triggered, the dog nudges the owner’s leg and then lies flat. This is because the dog will not know the best way out of the burning building. On other occasions the dog will lead the owner to the source of the noise. 
The usual breeds of dogs used are Labradors, Cocker Spaniels, Cockerpoos and Minature Poodles.
Training takes 3 years and costs £ 25,000 however over the course of the dogs working life the cost can rise to £45,000 as help is given with vets insurance and in some cases even food. Dogs usually retire at the age of 11 or 12 and can remain with the family after that.
There are different grades of Assistance dogs. Sound dogs are not quite so highly trained and do not wear jackets but still play an important role for someone with hearing loss.

Michael explained that Ron is his best friend and goes everywhere with him. When Ron is wearing his jacket he is working and has access to all venues although there have been some difficulties with that that still need to be ironed out in law.

We ended the talk with donations to the PAWS appeal fundraiser and of course giving Ron some well deserved Attention Pats.

Our conversations continued over an excellent lunch.