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What We DoTHSD is a non-profit organization that trains Service Dogs and Hearing Dogs to assist people with disabilities. Hearing Dogs are trained to alert their deaf owners by touch and lead them to everyday sounds, such as a door knock, smoke alarm or telephone. We also train Service Dogs to assist people with balance while walking, e.g. people with Parkinson's, polio survivors, and people who have had strokes. Service Dogs assist individuals with physical disabilities by opening doors, fetching wheelchairs, retrieving dropped items, operating light switches, moving paralyzed limbs and getting help. THSD adopts all of our dogs from animal shelters and rescue leagues. Utilizing positive reinforcement, we train the dogs, pair them with their new partners and then train them as teams — all free of charge to the recipients. THSD invests $17,500 in training each Service Dog team and each Hearing Dog team. We provide the dogs and training free of charge to recipients. We rely on your donations to pay for the cost of training. Please donate today! (Your donation to THSD is tax deductible! Tax ID number 76-0260567). How We TrainTrainers at Texas Hearing & Service Dogs begin as volunteers. They have a working knowledge of operant conditioning using positive reinforcement with a variable ratio and a variety of reinforcers. That means rewarding correct behaviors with many types of rewards (food, praise, petting, favorite behavior) and in response to different frequencies of the desired behavior (reward for just one sit, reward after three sits). THSD Trainers never use aversives (things the dog does not like). This includes striking the dog, jerking on the dog's leash, scolding the dog, "time outs" or withholding food. If the dog fails to perform a behavior correctly (as opposed to doing an undesirable behavior), the trainer drops back to a stage of the behavior the dog understands and then takes a smaller step forward in building the behavior. For example: Dog learning to nudge dangling "paralyzed" arm back up to arm of wheelchair. Dog will touch arm briefly, but does not push it hard enough to move it back onto chair arm. Trainer drops back to stage where dog is successfully touching arm and rewards. Then trainer gradually raises criteria to requiring dog to touch arm just a little harder in order to get reward. Trainers respond to undesirable behaviors by A) Ignoring the behavior and, B) Redirecting the dog to perform a desirable behavior, which the trainer then reinforces. Ideally, the desirable behavior is incompatible with the undesirable behavior, e.g. Jumping on visitor is A) Ignored and B) the trainer redirects the dog to "down", which is impossible to do while jumping. Most trainers begin as volunteer Foster Trainers or volunteer Apprentice Trainers. A Foster Trainer keeps a Hearing or Service Dog in his or her home for 3 or 4 months. The dog already will have already received some preliminary training at the Facility. This is more than just babysitting. The Foster Trainer follows a training manual with the dog and turns in regular training reports. They work together in the home, in the car and eventually go to public places such as stores or even the Foster Trainer's workplace. Apprentice Trainers assist THSD Trainers with training exercises and husbandry. Many training exercises require two people, e.g. answering the door knock for a Hearing Dog requires someone to knock on the door. Learning how to be petted in public requires someone to pet the dog as directed by the Trainer. Apprentice Trainers may also help with recording data from training sessions. To apply to volunteer, please email our Volunteer Coordinator at Debbie@servicedogs.org. You can also request an application by phone or Phone: (512) 891-9090 THSD is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization. |
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