Melissa Billingsley first encountered hearing assistance dogs while working at her family’s veterinary hospital where she is a registered veterinary technician and practice manager. Lee G, one of her regular clients, had a hearing loss. Over the years, he had three service dogs from Canine Companions for Independence (CCI). Melissa saw the wonderful partnership between Lee and each of his dogs. She and her young children, Matthew and Madysen, met CCI volunteers and the puppies they were raising at Lee’s memorial service and decided that they could make a difference by becoming puppy raisers themselves.
Because they live in a rural area in California, they faced a few challenges while raising their first puppy, mostly due to lack of experience and distance from other puppy raisers. Service dog training is much different from puppy classes for pets; it is very structured so Melissa had to rely on written training guidelines and remote support. During the time she was with the family, the puppy was socialized constantly at home and out in public, and she learned 30 specific commands. When it was time to return her to Canine Companions, everyone was sad to say goodbye, but they understood from the beginning that they were raising her to allow someone with a disability to become more independent.
In 2010, Melissa applied to become an officer in the California Highway Patrol. It wasn’t until she had passed nearly every hurdle in the tough application process that she came face to face with the reality of her own hearing situation. She sailed through the written test, physical abilities test, personal interview, lie detector test and psychological evaluation. Then, during the medical test, she failed the hearing section. Melissa was shocked because she had always thought she could hear pretty much like everyone else. After several additional hearing tests and multiple MRI’s, she was diagnosed with bilateral profound/severe hearing loss in both ears. It took a couple of years for her to fully accept her hearing loss and to begin wearing hearing aids.
As she prepared for her second puppy in fall, 2013, Melissa attended a Canine Companions puppy raising class where she saw a working hearing dog demonstration for the first time. She was amazed at the things an assistance dog could do and felt that she could benefit from having one of her own. She went home from the training class and applied online that night. The wait was more than two years, and the family was raising puppy number four when Melissa finally received a call inviting her to team training at CCI where she would be matched with her own canine companion.
Team training at CCI included morning lectures and afternoon exercises with the dogs. Trainers worked with the applicants and the dogs to determine which pairings would be most effective. Melissa says, “I worked with a few dogs, then Hiltie! She came and put her head in my lap and looked at me with her beautiful crystal brown eyes and it was LOVE at first sight! I absolutely had to have her!” After a few more sessions working with other dogs, the trainers agreed and Melissa and Hiltie became partners. The two of them practiced basic sounds that Hiltie had already learned as a puppy, then many more sounds that Melissa taught her during the remainder of the two week training. After graduation, they went home together and came back for follow up evaluation and coaching three months later, and again at their one year anniversary.
After nearly three years together, Melissa and Hiltie go everywhere as a team. Hiltie is a comfort because she serves as ears for her partner—she alerts to everything from the microwave beep, mobile phone and fire alarm at home to the blood pressure monitor signal and autoclave sterilizer chime at work to the voices of people calling her name and asking questions. Not only does Hiltie let her partner know about those many sounds, her presence lets others know that Melissa isn’t ignoring them, she simply can’t hear their voices.
Today Melissa and her family are raising their 6th puppy and are proud that they can make a positive contribution to the lives of others. Now that she has experienced having a working hearing dog of her own, she completely understands the value of such wonderful support. To quote Melissa, “Hiltie is a major part of my life—she is the missing piece of my heart.”
To learn more about becoming a puppy raiser or to apply for a hearing assistance dog, contact Canine Companions for Independence www.cci.org
This article was originally published in The Hearing Loss Californian Spring 2019.
