Category: Animal House
Hello,
I am blind with a hearing impairment. The school that I am attending, Guiding Eyes, this summer, does not train the dog to alert me to such things as the doorbell ringing, the phone ringing, or my alarm clock. How do you think I could train the dog myself to perform these actions?
Nathan
Maybe you could have a friend or family member come over. Have them ring the doorbell, and every time your dog does something to alert you, reward him/her. This is, of course, assuming the dog will do something when the doorbell rings. If he doesn't, maybe you could tell your friend to ring the bell every minute or so, and every time he does, take your dog's paw and get him to tap you in a certain way, and then give him a treat or praise. Keep doing this for awhile and see if your dog starts doing it on his own. Same with the phone.
Also, if you don't mind me asking, what month this summer are you going to GEB. I'm going in June.
i wish you luck in class.
You might try asking the school if this is something you should be training your dog to do. It might go against some of their other training. Guide dogs are not alert dogs, and alert dogs are not guide dogs.
I was gonna say what Cody said; it's probably best to check if getting a guide dog would be a benefit to you, since they aren't trained to alert people for things.
Yes, this is true Cody. GEB does train deaf-blind people with guidedogs; and perhaps they work with those students and their dogs on such things. I don't know.