GOLDEN MOMENTS: TAZZY’S REAWAKENING

When Carol Kjellsen of Cumming, Georgia, adopted Tazzy, the Shetland Sheepdog/Yorkshire Terrier mix pup was five weeks old and weighed less than 12 ounces. “She looked like a Tasmanian devil!” says Carol. The orphan had no fur, couldn’t stand on her own, and wasn’t able to nurse properly because her Yorkie mom had died shortly after giving birth.

In the beginning, she was so tiny, nobody was sure the pup would survive. For their first month together, Tazzy lived in a little fleece sack Carol carried around in her pocket. Today, Tazzy is fourteen years old, 17 inches tall and weighs 17 pounds. After more than a decade together, the dog and her surrogate “mom” remain closer than ever.

That’s why two years ago, Carol immediately noticed something wasn’t quite right. Tazzy wasn’t barking as much as usual. “Shelties bark a lot, and she always barked at every noise,” says Carol. But Tazzy started sleeping through the doorbell. Then even the sound of the garage door wouldn’t rouse her. Touching the dog to wake her up made Tazzy nearly jump out of her skin. Carol knew the hearing loss was impacting her dog’s quality of life.

“We travel with our three dogs a lot, and that was fine when she could hear me,” says Carol. If the dogs saw and chased something, they were trained to come when called. “When Tazzy’s hearing went, that became a problem.” Cataract surgery had saved the eyesight of her cousin’s dog, and Carol wondered if hearing aids were also possible. “Everybody thought I was crazy,” she says, but she asked her veterinarian anyway.

Veterinary Evaluation for Deaf Dogs

“Ms. Kjellsen is a very special client,” says Dr. Mike McLaughlin of Animal Medical Center in Cumming. “Somebody who considers putting a hearing aid in a dog is up there at the top of the list!” Dr. McLaughlin remembered that while he was in school at Auburn, Dr. Arvle Marshall conducted a research study putting hearing aids in dogs. He called and asked if a hearing aid might help Tazzy.

The first step was to determine if she was deaf or hard of hearing. A test called the brain stem auditory evoked response (BAER test) conducted at Auburn would cost about $500. Another option worked just as well in this situation, though, and cost nothing. Dr. McLaughlin told Carol to wait until Tazzy was awake, make sure the dog couldn’t see her, and then whistle. “If you whistle and the ears twitch, the dog can hear to some capacity and is a candidate for a hearing aid,” says Dr. McLaughlin. The ear-twitch reflex does not work if the dog is deaf.

Hearing Aids for Dogs?

Tazzy’s ear twitched. She was hard of hearing, and therefore a candidate for an aid. The next step was training her to accept wearing the foam earplug, says Carol. She was told this training typically took a couple of weeks, and that some dogs never accepted the sensation. But because of their special relationship, Carol never had any doubt that Tazzy would trust her and accept the earplug. “I showed her the earplug, held her really close, and put it in,” says Carol.

Tazzy wore it for two minutes the first time. When shook her head, Carol gave her a break and took it out. The next time, Tazzy wore it for 15 minutes before asking for a break. “The third time she left it in for two hours. And the fourth time, Tazzy left it in for six hours. So, I called Mike and said wearing the aid wouldn’t be a problem.”

The final step was putting together the hearing aid system for Tazzy. The original Auburn research project was long finished, and no canine hearing aids were left. Recycling a human hearing aid was the best and least expensive option. Carol’s father-in-law donated one of his old hearing aids to the project.

Training Tazzy to Accept the Hearing Aid

The hearing aid was attached to Tazzy’s collar with Velcro. Then a small piece of IV tubing connected the hearing aid to the foam earplug, and the foam plug was inserted into Tazzy’s ear. “Then I put the batteries in, and Tazzy immediately reacted!” says Carol. “It was very obvious she was hearing. She’d go outside and her little head would go up. The barking started again and I thought, ‘oh gee, I forgot that!’”

Suddenly, Tazzy could hear crickets and birds–and other dogs again. Patti the Pekingese rattles the walls with her snores, says Carol, and it used to disturb Tazzy so much she’d bark to be rescued. “One of the first things I noticed was Tazzy looking at Patti snoring as if to say, ‘Why am I hearing this again?!’”

There are times when the dog prefers not to hear everything. She’s learned to tell Carol when the batteries go dead, or if the hearing aid whistles with feedback–Tazzy simply paws out the aid. “Her ears get sore if she wears it every single day, so we just put it in when we need to, such as when we travel,” says Carol. The hearing aid has re-awakened the close connection the pair share and opened the world back up for Tazzy.

Updates to Dog Hearing Aids

Since writing this account of Tazzy’s donated hearing aid, new options have become available. As mentioned above, FETCHLAB now has improved the process, that includes creating ear molds and a customized fit of the hearing aid. Training your dog to accept wearing the aid can prove challenging, too.

Some dogs won’t accept wearing the “weird thing” inside their ear. Have realistic expectations. You can make accommodations for hearing loss for aging dogs with a number of simple options. Dogs often respond to visual cues like hand signals. Learn more about living with a deaf dog in this post.