 |
  |
| UC Home | Courses | Departments | Library | Teaching | Research | Students | Contacts | Search | |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
||
Hearing dog a success on campus
Published by the Communications and Development Department
10 October 2002
A Canterbury University law student has found the perfect “conversation starter” and he takes her everywhere with him. Her name is Bella and she is the first hearing dog on campus.
Derrick Bishop and Bella had been together five weeks and already, Derrick said, the hearing dog had made a big difference to his life.
Derrick’s good lip reading skills and high-tech hearing aid meant he could get around and hold conversations without people realising he was deaf. With Bella at his side people could now see he was deaf and take it into consideration. It helped prevented misunderstandings, he said. “Blind people have a white cane but deafness doesn’t show.”
Derrick, who started losing his hearing ten years ago as an adult has no hearing in one ear and 20 percent in the other. At first he was sceptical about how a hearing dog could help him but he has been surprised at he extra freedom Bella has given him.
Without realising it he had become progressively dependent on family members. Now he can “hear” the phone ring and he has more confidence when he is out walking because Bella is trained to alert him when there is something behind him. He also no longer has an excuse for being late for lectures because Bella wakes him up when the alarm clock rings.
Bella is trained by Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, an independent trust. She responds to specific noises like the doorbell, alarms, a knock at the door and Derrick’s name. She is trained to get his attention by pawing his leg and to tell him which noise it is by her behaviour.
Having a hearing dog was a big commitment, Derrick said. Her training took nine months and was sponsored by Rotary. He also had help from Housing New Zealand because he needed to move to a house suitable for a dog.
“It’s like having a baby. I’ve always got her with me. I’ve got to be aware of her needs all the time.”
Bella’s hearing is better than human hearing which has led to some surprises. Occasionally, for example, she has started alerting him in the middle of a lecture to noises somewhere else in the building that none of the other humans in the lecture theatre have noticed. “It takes me ages to get her calmed down again.”
Derrick said Bella was trained to be well behaved and never bite. People could pat Bella but Derrick asked them to check first because he didn’t want her to get uncomfortable. He has found she is an excellent “conversation starter” but sometimes wishes she wasn’t quite so enthusiastic about the alarm clock in the mornings.
For more information contact:
|
