I've been partnered for 6 years now with a hearing assistance dog. I was not born deaf, and I am not a part of any Deaf communities. I'm not totally deaf, just hearing impaired enough to miss important things like alarms, sirens, back-up beeps, most ring tones, and door bells, among other things. That's where my canine partner comes in.
I'm writing this because so many people have some rather huge misconceptions about service animals. The biggest ones are that service animals are treated like machines or robots and that only specific breeds and species are service animals.
Service animals are still animals, with health issues, personalities, needs, and desires. They can't be turned on and off like a hearing aid. And sometimes, their needs trump their handler's needs. I happen to have a hearing ear dog, also known as a signal dog, who is full of personality quirks and one major goal in his life: to listen for me.
Even when he sleeps, he listens for the sounds I can't hear, or the sounds he thinks I can't hear. Even when he's pooping or peeing, he's listening for me. I've seen him pause in the middle of pooping, ears fully extended, trying to determine if the sound he hears is one I need to know about right now, or if he can safely finish his poop. Most of the time, he finishes his poop, but not always. It's so comical, watching him walk humped over, trying not to get his poop on his legs as he crab-walks to me to give the "Pay Attention!" signal. He doesn't know that I've already been alerted just by his stance that he needs me to notice something and he's so determined to alert me that he doesn't see the stand down signal I give him until he's close. I praise him and tell him to stand down, but sometimes, I'm laughing so hard it takes several tries to get it right.
He has favorite people, people he has to love on as soon as he sees them. He still listens for me, but he does it while ecstatically licking their face and begging for pets. He has people he greatly dislikes, and does his best to "shun" them. And there are people he deeply fears because they have no clue how to treat a dog, let alone a service dog and they've scared him or hurt him before I could stop them; sometimes in spite of my efforts to stop them.
See, he falls into the "not recognized as a service dog breed". There are no specific breeds of dogs or animals that are service animals. Most people, when they think of a service animal, automatically think "dog", and then they think "Golden Retriever", "Labrador Retriever", or "German Shepherd". These are all good breeds who do well as service animals, but they aren't the only dogs that do well in service, and dogs aren't the only species that can be good as service animals.
I have a friend who has a hearing macaw who alerts on sounds and can be even more specific than a dog in directing his handler's attention to the sound. He can even pantomime what the sound is or is about, something my dog just wishes he could do.
My partner is small, cute, and fluffy.
He's a 4 pound long-haired Chihuahua. Chihuahuas are rare as hearing dogs because too many people treat them as toys and don't train them, but in my experience, they make ecellent and devoted hearing partners. Corgis, Papillons, Toy Poodles, Min-Pins, Chinese Cresteds, Japanese Chins, and toy spaniels all make ecellent hearing partners but are genrally overlooked as potential service dogs because they are small and cute. That shouldn't be a factor, but it is.
Because of my hearing partner's small size, I generally carry him in a modified baby sling so he can easily reach me to alert me on sounds and to protect him from being stepped on by inobservant people. These factors immediately lead people to assume he's a pampered pet.
There is no law saying service animals must wear identifying colors or vests or tags although many of us with service animals do so idistinguish our partners. Even when we do provide special tags, photo IDs, and vests to our partners, there are still people who ignore them, especially when your partner is small, cute, and fluffy.
I've had people try to grab my partner out of his special carrier so they could cuddle him. I've had far more people try to pet him when he's actively on duty - almost always without asking and in spite of his tags and ID. I've had people comment that they wish they could bring their pets with them to work or into the restaurant or out shopping and into a hotel that is clearly not pet-friendly. They comment on how "spoiled" he is because he's wearing clothes and in a carrier I am wearing. They don't understand that he's not spoiled, he's earned every one of his privileges and keeps earning them in spite of some people's best efforts to prevent him from doing his job.
I've had managers tell me I can't bring him into the restaurant or store, and when I point out his tags and photo ID and patch vest and the patches on his carrier and hand them the ADA card for service animals, they follow me suspiciously around the store. Because I'm not fully deaf, only partly so, they seem to think I am scamming them somehow.
My partner isn't bothered by any of this. He's focused on his task, the one he lives and breathes for: listening and alerting. He doesn't care that the store manager is lurking just around the corner of the aisle following us; he cares only about listening for shopping carts I can't see, or for someone saying, "Hey, you", or "watch out", or calling my name or his. He also listens for beeps coming from forklifts that roam the aisles of some stores so he can tell me where they are and to watch out for them.
He's small, cute, quirky, and lives for one thing: to lisen with love for the things I can't hear.