Buddy's amazing soundwork

Welcome back to beautiful Buddy’s Puppy Pen.

In this episode, we are going to show you Buddy’s brilliant soundwork skills that he has been practising with his amazing volunteer puppy trainer, Amanda. No matter how many times we see our hearing dog superstars alerting to sounds, it never fails to amaze us. We think you will enjoy seeing Buddy in action too!

The first part of Buddy’s soundwork training was teaching him how to ‘touch’. This is how Buddy will communicate to his future deaf partner that he has heard a sound.

Here he is practising his touch training with Amanda…

When Buddy hears a sound, he will give his partner a nudge with his nose, his partner will put their arms out and say, ‘What is it?’ and most of the time, Buddy will take them to that sound.

Once Buddy mastered how to ‘touch’, he could begin practising with real sounds!

Here he is practising alerting to the portable cooker timer…

What a clever pup. As you can see, when Buddy correctly alerts Amanda to the sound, he receives a yummy treat and lots of praise and attention. Through reward-based training, Buddy is learning that alerting to sounds is lots of fun… it’s almost like a game!

Buddy has also learnt how to alert Amanda to the alarm clock…

We think you’ll agree, this looks like a lovely way to be woken up in the morning!

Another important sound that Buddy has learnt is the doorbell…

Some deaf people can often miss visitors, or parcels, because they can’t hear their doorbell. This can lead to feelings of anxiety and frustration.

This is where superstar Buddy will come to the rescue! He will be able to alert his future deaf partner to the sound of the doorbell. Of course, doorbells can all sound slightly different, so our brilliant trainers can tailor Buddy’s training to the specific sound of his future deaf partner’s doorbell.

For sounds like the cooker timer and doorbell, Buddy has been taught to take his partner to the source of where the sound is coming from. This is not the case for all sounds though. For example, for the fire alarm, Buddy has been taught to lie down. This will tell his future deaf partner that there is danger nearby, but he’s not going to lead them to it…

Excellent job Buddy!

This is what makes hearing dogs so special; not only can they alert to normal everyday sounds, but they also have the power to save their deaf partner’s life by alerting to danger sounds too.

It’s now time for a well-earned snooze!

That’s all for now, we hope you’ve enjoyed seeing behind-the-scenes of Buddy’s soundwork training and seeing just what a clever superstar he is. Buddy is in the final stages of his training now where he is fine-tuning everything he has learnt and tailoring his skills for his future deaf partner. It’s all so exciting!

Buddy has come such a long way since he was a tiny puppy and we are all so proud of the amazing intelligent dog he has become. It is thanks to the time and dedication of his staff and volunteer dog trainers that he has reached this stage.

Of course, it is also thanks to you for sponsoring Buddy in his training journey. None of this would have been possible without your incredible support. We are all so grateful.

So, from everyone at Hearing Dogs, thank you so much for sponsoring Buddy.