Pereg seemed to understand that my hearing is mostly useless, and wherever I was if she heard someone at the door she would bark to tell me. If the door was open and she was outside on her tether, her different barks would tell me if it was a friend, a foe, or "I am not sure but..." And most of those she thought were not friends did not come near because she would race out and BARK. She would also warn me if the telephone rang and she thought I had not heard it. Tikva, who is a mini Booga, whether she realises about my hearing or not, has started doing the same. She will go to the front door [closed as she can not go out on a tether until I get new harnesses for her] and vocalise if she hears someone. I say "vocalise" because she does not bark. She is a crossbreed, half a hound, and she howls. But she definitely hears things that I do not, and howls and rushes to the door to tell me. Yesterday we were in the kitchen and she "told" me someone was at the door, then rushed to the door and back again to make sure I knew someone was there. I had not heard a thing - she had. I wonder if she is teaching herself to be a hearing service dog, just as Pereg did. And just like Pereg, she recognises the sound of my neighbour coming down the ramp and has a different vocalisation for that. Strange puppy. Now, if only she would stop biting...
A dog which trains itself - can't be bad! Sounds as if she's going to be very useful. I don't think I've had a dog who reacts to the telephone, unless I am rushing to answer it and they can sense there is something urgent happening. All my dogs except one have barked when there is anyone at the door. The one exception was Gertie the lurcher. She wouldn't even trouble herself to lift her head to see who it was.
The thing is that mostly we do not have door bells or door knockers - people just rap with their knuckles, and yesterday we were in the kitchen, nowhere near the door. Plus I had a tap on which cancelled out the small amount of external hearing I had at the time. And sometimes, even when I have been sitting at the computer which is next to the door, Tikva has appeared from wherever she was, vocalised and gone straight to the door - and this was well before someone is immediately outside let alone knock. She is far too young to understand about my hearing loss but it seems as if she is making sure that I can hear what she can - warning me. The telephone is different as I have so many extensions, and yet she still looks towards the nearest one ringing but has yet to react to it.
