Editor: There are quite a few organizations in the US that train hearing dogs. I don't know how long most of them have been around, but International Hearing Dog, Inc. has been training hearing dogs for 30 years! Here's more information.

This article was originally published in the Brighton (Colorado) Standard Blade, and is reprinted with their kind permission. You can visit them at www.metrowestfyi.com

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When Wilhelmina from Texas was notified she would be receiving a hearing dog, she was so excited to meet the dog that she flew to Colorado to spend two days with Rambo, a border collie mix.

Rambo is the 1,000th dog to be trained and placed by the International Hearing Dog center since it opened 30 years ago in Henderson. Until 30 years ago the idea for a hearing dog was unheard of.

Valarie Foss-Brugger, president and executive director for International Hearing Dog, Inc., said the roots of International Hearing Dogs are in Minnesota. A young woman by the name of Agnes McGrath, a dog trainer at a kennel in White Bear Lake, Minn., was approached by a deaf woman asking if a hearing dog could be trained for her. The woman had a dog that worked naturally for her but it had died of old age.

With the help of the local Lions Club organization, McGrath trained the first six dogs in Minnesota. When the money ran out the project was taken on by the American Humane Association led by McGrath and funded with a grant for a four-year pilot study. The study was completed in 1979 and the first hearing dog training center was established in Henderson.

Hearing dogs are trained to alert people with at least a 65 percent hearing loss to important sounds that occur in their daily environment such as a door knock, a ringing telephone, a baby's cry or a smoke alarm. The dogs, by law, are allowed in public places and at the recipient's work place.

Only shelter dogs are used in the program. Brugger said after evaluating dogs for so many years, it's easy to determine if a dog is a good match for the program.

"I look for dogs that are outgoing and energetic, and show an eagerness to please" she said. The dogs have to be between six and 12 months old (when they are at their learning peak). Only the smaller sized breeds, 10 to 45 pounds, are used. Some breeds, such as the Labradors, don't work well because of the hunting instinct bred into them.

Brugger said the most challenging part of the job is finding the funding for the program.

It takes four to eight months to train a dog at a cost of $6,000 per dog. The center places approximately 40 dogs a year. All cost are paid for with grant money, service organizations such as Lions International, some Grange groups, church groups, and individuals. Although the individuals receiving the dogs are not charged anything, s ome make a donation to the organization if they can. There is an $80 equipment and transfer of ownership fee at the time the dog is certified.

Hearing dogs are placed throughout the country and in Canada. IHDI also has helped start programs in Japan, Norway and Australia.