The Cupertino Courier

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Typhoon, a hearing dog, demonstrates how to alert trainer Ralph Dennard when a smoke alarm sounds.

Tails wag for Quota Club donation

By Pam Marino

It's tough to follow directions when you're in a room full of chicken lunches and everyone is eating but you.

That was the dilemma of Typhoon, a white terrier mix who was trying her best to show off her hearing-dog skills at last week's Cupertino Quota Club meeting.

Despite the distractions, the 2-year-old terrier wearing the neon orange vest labeled "Hearing Dog" did a pretty good job of helping trainer Ralph Dennard show how these dogs can be an asset to someone who is deaf or hard of hearing.

Dennard and Typhoon demonstrated how hearing dogs alert owners to smoke alarms, telephones and digital alarms. At the sound of an alarm, Typhoon was off and running to jump up and signal Dennard.

Dennard, who is director of the Hearing Dog Program for the San Francisco SPCA, said dogs like Typhoon are not bred for the job but adopted from local animal shelters.

Both males and females are used, and they are all spayed and neutered, Dennard said. Females are usually easier to train, he added. "The guys are always a pain somewhere along the way," he joked.

The dogs take anywhere from three to six months to train. They are matched to applicants, who wait three to nine months, or sometimes a year, for a dog. Before the new owner can take the dog home, the dogs and owners are brought together for a one-week training course in San Francisco. Without training for the owners, Dennard said, the dog could become "just an expensive pet."

The program serves all of California and Nevada, so owners are actually flown in for a week and housed at a motel.

The cost for the owners is $20 for the application and $100 for the course. The SPCA, using private donations and grants, pays for the dogs and their training, the owners' airfare and motel and interpreters.

The Cupertino Quota Club gave the program a $3,000 grant this year, which makes the club a sponsor of the training classes.

The club members had hoped to see Black Jack, a 12-year-old cocker spaniel mix who has visited Cupertino before. Dennard said old age is catching up with the pooch, whose own hearing has begun to fail.

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