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Louisa: Describe what it was like when Max came into your life, Ann, because you talked earlier about what life was like before him.
When he came into your home what was it like?
Ann: It was as if a light had come on. It just completely changed my life.
I stopped worrying about missing things…
And I stopped worrying about what people thought of me as a deaf person.
I found that I was going out more, it gave me confidence to go out and talk to people…
…because he’s wearing his jacket people understand that I’m deaf and not just rude.
It’s also really a physical thing.
I found that the stress just dropped away from me.
And it was actually something I felt.
I hadn’t realised how tense I was around the house, until I realised that he was going to do the work for me. The things that I couldn’t hear.
Louisa: Umm.
We’re going to put him to the test now.
Now we won’t give too much away but your mobile phone is in the corner of the room in which we are standing at the moment…
and we’re going to send a text message to that phone and see what Max does.
After he’s just tipped over a standard lamp which is at the back of us.
So at the moment he’s just standing by you, he’s just being a normal dog…
(phone rings)
and now lets see what he does now.
So he’s now tapping his paw on your thigh.
Ann: What is it? What is it?
Louisa: And you’re walking over.
Max is now leading Ann to the mobile phone.
That’s extraordinary.
As soon as he got to the mobile phone you rewarded him. That’s an important part of the process, isn’t it.
Ann: Absolutely, every alert that he does, every action that he does…
Is a positive experience for him so he gets a treat at the end of it.
Louisa: That’s absolutely extraordinary.
I’ve seen him do a couple of things this morning and one of the other things that they do…
When a fire alarm goes off that’s a different sort of alarm so what they are trained to do is to lie down in front of the recipient…
As opposed to just pat them and take them to where the sound is.
Ann, thank you very much indeed.
So in the next hour, Phil, come back to me and we’ll find out more about puppy socialising…
What they do when the hearing dogs are born and how they get them up to the standard of Max…
Whose sitting by the side of me now looking very happy because he’s just had a biscuit.