At first, there was this longing for a four-legged companion, a dog in my life. For a long time now, I was thinking that it wasn’t the right time, that I wouldn’t have enough time to devote to him. That my way of life (office hours, apartment life, traveling to faraway destinations) was not necessarily suited for my future companion.
Also that there would be a need for a consequent education to ensure that my dog would become a well-balanced life companion, well socialized. That there would be, in addition to the time to devote, efforts (i.e. frequent repetition of cues), kibble and rewards to build a healthy relationship between us.
In short, I was aware of all this. And my idea was to train my future dog to accompany me and be my super ears, to compensate for those situations where technical limitations of my cochlear implants did show, especially in noisy environments, or when I simply can’t hear (at night or when I want to be in my golden, deep-space bubble of silence to stay focused).
In France, accessibility (ability to access) and even the awareness of the general public to people with disabilities is not as advanced as in English-speaking countries, so it is logical that most of French people are not aware of the existence of assistance dogs trained to listen to and alert their deaf/hearing impaired beneficiaries: Hearing Dogs. We are more familiar with Guide Dogs for the Blind and Handi’Chiens, which include 3 categories (assistance dogs for people with motor and/or mental disabilities; alerting dogs for children with autistic spectrum disorders, Down’s syndrome or multiple disabilities; and social assistance dogs in medical and social institutions). Still little known to the general public, new orientations for assistance dogs have also recently been introduced, including Medical Alert Dogs (people with diabetes, epilepsy and other medical conditions causing seizures), and assistance dogs for people with post-traumatic stress disorder.
French legislation is now moving towards greater recognition of assistance dogs trained in other centres than those “labelled” for Guide and Handi’Chiens as indicated in the Circular of 15/07/2019:
“A work of pedagogy and communication with the general public has been initiated with the creation of the national certificate, awarded by the labeled training centres for dogs undergoing training and for trained dogs accompanying their master. This certificate is intended to facilitate free access to public places for persons accompanied by guide or assistance dogs, as from the dog’s training period. It is not exclusive to other means of attesting to the dog’s training, such as certificates issued by non-labelled training centres.”
At the very beginning of the story, I told myself that I could apply to receive a Hearing Dog trained by the Association des Chiens du Silence, but considering the long delays to get a dog trained by the association (given to its future beneficiary at his 2 years old after a passage in a foster family), and as I am passionate about dog education, I looked for a way to educate my own dog. This became possible thanks to the association FCAPI (France Chien d’Assistance Personnalisé et Individualisé) which supervises the training of future assistance dogs who are with their beneficiaries and can already build beautiful relationships of complicity.
And why not?!
Now, all I had to do was to find the right dog… or at least a dog that has a character and behavior compatible with its future orientation.
