ELSEVIER Applied Animal Behaviour Science 47 (1996) 7-15 zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVU APPLIED ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR SCIENCE The socializing role of hearing dogs Lynette A. Hart * , R. Lee Zasloff, Anne Marie Benfatto Center for Animals in Society, School zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFED of Veterinary Medicine, University zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTS of California. Davis, CA 9.5616, USA zyxwvutsrqpo Abstract The relationships between hearing dog ownership and the owners’ levels of loneliness, changes in social interactions with people, and life stress were studied retrospectively by questionnaire in a sample of 38 hearing dog owners and a control group of 15 prospective owners. The hearing dogs fulfilled the owners’ primary expectation of alerting them to sounds. A sense of security, their second highest concern, was also addressed. Owners felt safer when they were alone with their hearing dog than before obtaining one. Companionship was the third-rated reason for acquiring the dog and owners reported being significantly less lonely after receiving a hearing dog (P < 0.01). Most owners and prospective owners described a role of the hearing dog as changing interactions within the family. Owners also felt that the dogs changed their interactions with the hearing community and neighbors, whereas few prospective owners foresaw this effect of the dog (P < 0.01). Apparently stemming from the disability being more obvious, owners also scored lower on a life stress score than prospective owners (P < 0.02). Keywords: Hearing; Deaf; Dog; Socializing; Loneliness; Stress 1. Introduction Guide dogs have assisted blind individuals in the United States for many years (Frank, 19571, and during the 1980s assistance dogs came into increasing use for persons with mobility and hearing disabilities (Hart et al., 1987; Hines, 1991). Dogs that are specially trained to assist individuals with hearing disabilities are commonly called hearing, hearing ear, or signal dogs. The initial concept of hearing dogs was to train dogs primarily for alerting deaf individuals to certain significant sounds such as door bells, ringing telephones, fire alarms, or babies crying. A national survey of 19 hearing dog programs estimated that 3000 dogs had been trained, with a rate of about 440 hearing dogs trained per year (Hines, 1991). Unlike other assistance dog programs, the hearing dog programs are willing to train dogs that are already owned by a recipient or * Corresponding author. 016%1591/96/$15.00 0 1996 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved SSDI 0168-1591(95)01006-8