Testimonials

Evie Crook and team hearing dog Gem

Seven-year-old Evie Crook is the youngest recipient to date of a hearing dog specially trained to help a deaf child.  Evie is severely deaf, and has had Gem for a few months.  She lives with her older sister, Maddy, who is hearing, and her parents Dave and Becky who are also both hearing.  Becky first heard about Hearing Dogs a few years ago, and enquired then about the possibility of having a dog trained for Evie, but at that stage the Charity was only training dogs for deaf adults.  However, in 2007 when the pilot project was set up to place hearing dogs with deaf children, Becky was contacted and Evie was lucky enough to be one of the 12 children involved in the study.

Gem is a two-year-old Labrador that originally started life as a trainee guide dog, but her skills seemed to be more suited to being a team hearing dog – a dog specially trained for a deaf child.  When she was 18 months old she swapped her guide dog uniform for a hearing dog one, and has not looked back since.  She was placed with Evie in October 2008, and already she is making a huge difference to her life.  The signs were there from the first time the family stayed at Hearing Dogs’ training centre with Gem; it was the first night in her whole life that Evie slept in her own room on her own.  She wanted to do it because she felt safer with Gem.

Becky says: “Gem trots round everywhere after Evie, it’s almost like she’s checking where she’s going, which I know Evie is finding reassuring.  The most exciting event is Evie sleeping in her own bed.  Before we had Gem, Evie had never, not even once, slept through the night in her own bed.  Now she goes to bed at 7.30pm and gets up the next morning at 7.00am.  After seven and a half years’ broken sleep (sometimes quite upsetting, traumatic sleep) it is fantastic for us as her parents, but I can only imagine how immensely secure Evie must now feel to be able to do this.”

Gem has been trained to find Evie and tell her when one of her family want her attention, and also takes messages to and from Evie in a purse which she carries in her mouth.  She also alerts Evie to the cooker timer, which the family use for all sorts of activities including setting a time limit for homework.  All these responses have been extremely helpful for both Evie and her family, as Becky explains: “Gem is working brilliantly, particularly with the purse and the call.  We use the call at tea time and when someone is at the door to see Evie, and it is a revelation for Dave and me as we are no longer running up and down the stairs.

“Evie has always been quite a challenging child – she is very intelligent and attempts to be more independent than she is capable of being, which leads to frustration.  She can resort to being quite naughty when she feels she is being ignored.  However, both Dave and I have noticed quite a dramatic improvement in her behaviour since Gem’s arrival.  We think this is because with Gem, Evie never feels ignored and Evie knows that she must do as Gem is telling her with the nose nudge alert.  She seems to not need as much attention now Gem is here, and in her own words commented the other day, “I don’t get into any trouble now Gem is here and Mummy doesn’t shout as much!”  Another contributor to her increasingly good behaviour must surely be because she is not as tired, and her improvement in behaviour has also been noted by her grandparents and her teacher.”

In the past, Evie has been very reluctant to speak in front of others and on many previous occasions when her teacher has asked her to talk about something she has said no.  However, a half day was recently dedicated to Evie at school for her to tell the children about her new dog.  Evie stood at the front of the class, and spoke non-stop for a full five minutes.  Becky is amazed at this.  “This was incredible for us, another fantastic breakthrough.  The talk that Evie gave led to a question and answer session with the children about Evie’s deafness, hearing aids etc. which she has never done before.  When she came home from school she was smiling when she told us; you could hear the pride in her voice.  This was a truly touching moment for us.”

Another feature of the team hearing dogs is the join-up lead for when the partnership and family are out and about.  Gem wears two leads, one on either side of her: one is held by Becky or Dave and the other is held by Evie.  This has been a great help to Becky, and has relieved her of a lot of worry.  In the past when they were out in busy places, Evie tended to run ahead and if she disappeared from view it was then difficult to get her attention as she would not hear anyone calling her.  Having the second lead attached to Gem which Evie can hold means that she is content to stay close to Gem and her mum and so remains much safer. 

Again, Becky has seen a change in Evie’s behaviour when out.  She says, “We went on a shopping trip recently and a lady asked Evie about Gem and asked if she could stroke her.  Evie explained that she could, but only on Gem’s shoulders as she wasn’t allowed too much fuss when she was working.  In the past, Evie would have clutched hold of my leg and looked the other way if an adult tried to talk to her.  A reasonable level of social interaction is important to us as her parents; Evie is who she is, we don’t want her to hide behind her hearing aids, we want her to be proud of everything she is and to know that deafness is just a tiny little part of her.  We honestly believe that because of the pride she feels in having Gem that she will want to share her feelings and experiences with anyone who asks her.”

11-year-old Maddy has also seen a big change in her younger sister since Gem has been on the scene.  “Evie seems to have more confidence already and is talking to more people now Gem is with her,” she says.  This is a sentiment that Becky endorses.  “In general Evie seems happier; much, much calmer and much more confident.  She seems to have suddenly done a bit of growing up.  Gem needs feeding every day, grooming every day, playing with every day, walking every day and Evie knows that she has a responsibility now and she has to do it.”

Becky sums up the difference Gem has made to the whole family in the short time she has been with them.  “It feels like Gem has lived with us for much longer than she has. The benefits are fantastic, and Evie seems calmer and more relaxed, which could be the result of finally sleeping through the night.  It’s like we have a child who is beginning to blossom; to settle and to appreciate things around her.  Absolutely everything about Gem’s arrival has been positive and the results are so heartening.   After a lovely walk yesterday Evie and Gem laid on the lounge rug together, both totally shattered and I listened without Evie knowing as she whispered to Gem how much she loved her.  That about says it all really, doesn’t it?”

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