Hearing-ear dog introduced to city
vey trained to understand 40 words in sign-language
Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Friday, June 19, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Emily Roback has a canine partner to help her find her way around her new hometown.
Emily Roback and her hearing-ear service dog, Ivey. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo |
The 37-year-old hard-of-hearing chiropractor – who moved to the city from Calgary about three weeks ago – said her service dog Ivey is trained to understand 40 words in sign-language and can hear up to two blocks away.
Roback has hearing loss in both ears, although one is much worse than the other.
"Inside the house I can't hear anything," said Roback. "So she can hear the door-bell, and answers the door."
Well-suited to service life
Roback said service dogs are usually poodles or retrievers, but she doesn't like poodles and didn't want to deal with the shedding that comes along with a retriever.
So she said she found a breeder who could provide her with a Weimaraner – for $1,200 – a grey-coloured dog with short hair that is well-suited to service-life.
"She is 60 lbs; she was the smallest of the litter," said Roback.
Their three-day drive up from Calgary was uneventful, said Roback. The dog didn't make a sound, she said.
Bill Adkins, president of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association's Yellowknife chapter, said he has heard of hearing-ear dogs, but the idea is a bit new to him.
"I don't know a whole lot about them except that it's like a seeing-eye dog that's been trained to listen for different sounds," he said. "If (the owner) cannot hear the fire alarm system in her building, and other situations like that."
He said he isn't sure if anyone else in town has a hearing dog.
"Most people get by with a hearing aid, or if they don't have the ability to hear at all they'll have a person to help them." he said, adding that a dog would be helpful for fully-deaf people who don't have anyone else to rely on for help.
Adkins said between 15 and 20 per cent of the city's population has impaired hearing.
He said people don't always notice that a person is deaf – unless they see their hearing aids – so a service dog is a good way to identify people who have hearing impairment.
He said life can be hard for people with hearing loss.
"It isolates you," he said. "You do not participate with people because you don't hear what they're saying. Many people are embarrassed with that. They're laughed at a couple of times."
