The San Francisco SPCA initiated the Hearing Dog Program in July, 1978. The Hearing Dog concept, when applied to an Animal Shelter framework, has resulted in a unique and exciting combination, offering assistance to deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, while at the same time, giving previously homeless animals a chance for useful lives of love and service.

This is our frisky demo dog, Typhoon.

At present, the program places dogs with California and Nevada residents only. We have made over 645 placements and look forward to placing many more alert, hard-working canine partners.

Many deaf or hard-of-hearing people find that at some time they face the reality of missing important auditory signals -- crucial, possibly life-saving warnings that most hearing people take for granted. Particularly for those individuals who live alone or in households where there are no hearing people, it can be important that they be alerted to certain occurrences: a knock at the door, the buzz of a smoke detector or a fire alarm; the sound of a prowler. SF/SPCA Hearing Dogs can offer a practical alternative for many non-hearing people. SF/SPCA Hearing Dogs can be constant companions capable of responding to many different stimuli and alerting their guardians to important sounds.

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To apply for a Hearing Dog a person should have a serious hearing loss and be 18 years or older. However, we will place a dog with a younger person on an individual case-by-case basis. Applicants are asked to return their applications together with a $20 application fee. An in-depth interview is conducted with each applicant in their home. The interview is necessary so that we can learn as much as possible about an applicant's lifestyle and family environment.

The SF/SPCA Hearing Dog Program trains primarily those dogs our trainers select from animal shelters. We sometimes accept donations of dogs, but only in exceptional cases. We do not offer to train dogs already privately owned by individuals. As previously stated, a major objective of the program is to rescue dogs from the shelter. Most dogs are small to medium size, but we also train larger dogs such as Golden Retrievers or Labs. Both males and females are selected and all dogs are spayed or neutered before being placed.

The dogs are trained to respond to important sounds such as a knock at the door, doorbell, telephone/TDD, (telecommunications device for the deaf), smoke alarm, alarm clock, timer device, or perhaps some other sound. Of course, each dog also receives obedience training in the basics of heel, sit, down, stay and come. If a dog is assigned to a person who uses sign language, the dog is trained to respond to all obedience commands by signal as well as voice.

The actual placement of the dog involves each student attending a week long training class at The SF/SPCA Training Center. A $100 Class Registration Fee is required prior to attending the class. Applicants needing accommodations stay at a prearranged motel near San Francisco paid for by our contributors.

Three placement training classes are conducted during the year with each class producing about 12 graduate "teams". Each union between a Hearing Dog and a deaf or hard of hearing person creates a unique challenge for the trainers. Human and canine partners must be carefully matched to foster long term, meaningful working relationships. A close rapport must be developed between dog and master before effective obedience and sound-alert responses are a consistent result. The Placement Training Class is a crucial period for developing these bonds.

Hearing Dog graduates have the same public access rights as Guide Dogs for the blind. Each Hearing Dog wears a special orange vest as well as an orange collar and leash identifying it as a trained Hearing Dog. Also, each graduate carries a special I.D. Card which shows a picture of the dog and refers to the civil code and ADA sections allowing legal access rights to Hearing Dog graduates.

From this program's inception, the overwhelming response from graduates has been positive. Based on practical working experience, substantial progress has been made in both the specialized dog training techniques and in the process of educating the new owners in the proper care and training of their new canine helpmate.