Hearing Dogs For The Deaf: Pocklington

A centre of excellence for the training of hearing dogs which offers some great opportunities for local volunteers.

If you live in or around Pocklington, the chances are you’ve seen signs to Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, or driven past it on the road to Bielby. This month, we decided to find out more about this national charity in our area, and discovered that not only is Hearing Dogs for the Deaf a world leader in its field, it also offers some fantastic local volunteering opportunities.
Hearing Dogs was launched in 1982, and since then, over 1,600 hearing dog partnerships have been formed across the country. The charity’s main centre is in Buckinghamshire, but in 2008 the Beatrice Wright Training Centre was opened just outside Pocklington, by patron Princess Anne. The centre was purpose-built and it includes a number of training houses, a kennel block, a puppy training hall and acres of land to exercise the dogs.

“The first stage in training a hearing dog begins at eight weeks old, and consists of initial puppy socialisation with volunteers.”

In the centre, dogs are trained to alert deaf children and adults to important household sounds, such as alarm clocks, doorbells and telephones. The dog does this by touching the person with a paw, or nudging with its nose and leads them to the source of the sound. For warning signals, such as smoke alarms, the dog alerts the person in the same way but then lies down to indicate that there is danger; hearing dogs can be life savers.
The first stage in training a hearing dog begins at eight weeks old, and consists of initial puppy socialisation with volunteers. At 12 to 14 months, the dog moves on to sound work. At this point, a recipient for each dog is identified, and they spend time working together before becoming an official partnership. Each dog is trained to suit the specific needs of the person it’s matched to, and the partnership is life changing.
As well as providing practical assistance to their recipients, hearing dogs also bring them independence, confidence, security and companionship, and the burgundy jacket worn by the dogs in public brings a visibility to deafness. Hearing dogs help recipients overcome the isolation that deafness can bring.
Hearing Dogs for the Deaf is clearly a very special charity, and it also provides some great opportunities to help with its work, and these opportunities are right on our doorstep. Volunteer Puppy Socialisers take a puppy into their own home and care for it for just over a year. For those who can’t commit to a full year, it’s also possible to be a short-term puppy socialiser, covering holidays and emergencies. Training in the Home Volunteers assist with the next stage, and accommodate dogs who will benefit from training in a home environment, for around 4-6 months, while the trainer regularly visits. Bed and Breakfast Volunteers accommodate a dog for evenings and weekends, so it can put its paws up after training at the centre. ‘B&B volunteering is the next best thing to having our own dog,’ says one volunteer. ‘It’s amazing to see them change throughout training as they turn into assistance dogs.’
For more information or to find out about other opportunities, visit www.hearingdogs.org.uk