Rasta is fantastic. Many people ask me exactly what a hearing dog does and if I trained her myself. I did not train her, but rather qualified to receive her from Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), a non-profit. Canine Companions is a national organization that enhances the lives of people with disabilities by providing highly trained service dogs at no charge to the recipient. Once selected to be a recipient, Michael and I traveled to Santa Rosa, CA. to go through a two week training period. At the end of that period, we returned to Alaska with Rasta. Wandering Alaskans became three.
Rasta does many things for me, but it’s best to describe them in three general areas:
Rasta is trained to alert me to sounds in the environment –
If the doorbell or stove alarm goes off, Rasta will come running and alert me by jumping on me and taking me to the sound. If I drop something, she alerts and takes me to what I dropped. There is a long list of sounds Rasta has been trained to alert me to. In addition, if there are “critical” sounds she hears, such as a smoke detector or carbon monoxide alarm, she alerts me and then lays down at my feet. This is to signal for me to leave the area immediately. I wouldn’t want her to take me to the carbon monoxide alarm going off!
Rasta is with me all the time, wearing a vest –
Her presence alerts people to the fact that I am different. In the past, people would speak at me from behind, or sometimes be looking away when they talked. This made it very difficult to hear them – I get by with a healthy dose of lip reading. Rasta wears a blue vest that identifies her as a hearing dog. People see the patches and they know I can not hear well. Strangers now tap my shoulder to talk to me, co-workers and family get a reminder. It is much easier to communicate now with Rasta.
Rasta is a dog –
People who can’t hear well tend to watch the people and animals for clues to help facilitate understanding the environment. If a group of people are standing around talking, and everyone suddenly looks to the left, I will look to the left too. Not because I heard anything, but because I want to see what everyone is looking at. This cues me into the fact that something is going on. When I am walking with Rasta, and she suddenly looks back, I know someone or something is coming up behind me. Generally it is a cyclist, but as an Alaskan, once it was a moose!
The folks at Canine Companions for Independence do an amazing job in training these dogs. Aside from hearing dogs, they also train dogs for other types of service. In addition, they do this as a non-profit. People with disabilities receive their services and assistance at no cost.
Here is my pitch. If you have ever met Rasta and experienced the gift that she can be, please donate to Canine Companions for Independence as a gift in her name. If you haven’t met Rasta yet, donate anyway in her name and feel good about the fact that you are directly contributing to helping people with disabilities get a service that is in high demand. Thank You!
Donate on behalf of Rasta: https://p2p.onecause.com/canine-companions-diy/judy-keslera: