Teresa Garratty: Can I train my new puppy to be my ears around the house?

I’ve recently acquired a puppy and it’s not just any old puppy….it’s a pug puppy.

I’ve never really thought of myself as a dog person but since pugs are small and my partner is worryingly obsessed with them, we decided to take the plunge.

Some people are probably thinking that if we were going to get a dog, it should have been a hearing dog. That would have been the most sensible option…but sensibility is overrated, which is also code for….

And after some extensive research (5 mins on google) I’ve discovered that it might even be possible to train the pug as a hearing dog anyway. I mean, how hard could it possibly be?

Hearing/service dog breeds are usually something like labradors or retrievers, as they’re easiest to train. I think pugs are probably best known as eaters and farters.

But I have concrete evidence (an article I found online, the internet never lies!) that it is possible to train a service pug!

Apparently, all service dogs must have two important traits…

It’s a bit to early to tell if Pascal the pug has these traits, as he’s currently only 10 weeks old and an insufferable little ****!

He does show some promise though, as he’s very alert when someone’s at the front door…maybe he thinks they have food…

Well, whatever happens, I’m sure he’ll become a useful set of ears in some respect. We’ve just got to nail the basics first!

Teresa is a freelance film maker, photographer and full time cynic. At school, she was voted “Most likely to end up in a lunatic asylum”, a fate which has thus far been avoided. Her pet hates are telephones, intercoms and all living things.

The Limping Chicken is the UK’s deaf blogs and news website, and is the world’s most popular deaf blog.