Meet Alli & Poppy.
Alli (on left), Poppy her service-dog (in middle), and her husband (on right).
Hello, my name is Allison and my service dog's name is Poppy. A little bit about us, I am a labor and delivery nurse, but when I am not working I am spending time with my husband, Jack, and Miss Poppy. Poppy and I are excited to share our story and spread awareness about Hearing Service Dogs.
I have not been hard of hearing for my entire life, but most of it.
When I was 8 years old I had surgery to put tubes in my ears, which would help with my chronic ear infections. After the tubes came out my ear drums never healed properly causing me to have no ear drum in my right ear and it only being scar tissue and only having about half of my left ear drum, because of this, it caused hearing loss. I got one hearing aid for my right ear, as that's mainly where my deficit was, when I was in 7th grade. I was so embarrassed and thought I would be bullied for having a hearing aid so I rarely wore it and when I did, I would do anything I could to cover it up.
I chose to just “suffer” and try my best to hear what people were saying, especially in school.
That changed once COVID-19 hit in 2020, I was just starting college and everyone was wearing masks. I felt very isolated and realized how much I depended on lip reading. I got a new set of hearing aids that were much more discreet and I realized what I had been missing. At this time I was living on my own with my husband and when I wasn’t wearing my hearing aids I wouldn’t wake up to anything, including my alarms, smoke alarms, doorbells, etc. This is when I researched Hearing service dogs,
I applied for one and was on the waitlist for a year. Poppy and I were matched and the rest is history!
The Process to Receive Poppi
I did a lot of research on all of the Hearing service dog organizations. Many organizations wanted you to pay for the service dog which was anywhere from $30,000-$60,000, but as a full-time college student, this just was not feasible. I continued my research and found an amazing non-profit organization out of Oregon. I began the application process and submitted my application knowing it could take 3-5 years before I was matched with my service dog. This was a bittersweet time because I was on the waitlist and knew my life would change for the better one day, but I also knew it would be a while before that happened. Almost exactly a year after applying, to my surprise I got an email stating that I was matched with Poppy, a 1.5-year-old black labrador retriever. It gave me a description of her silly and goofy personality and the things she loved. I was crying hysterically as I responded that I accepted her as my service dog.
After a month of planning for her arrival and buying her lots of things for the house, she was flown from Oregon to Connecticut with her trainer to be placed with me. As I anxiously awaited her arrival I was so excited to finally meet her. As she came into my house with the trainer she gave me the cutest greeting and then welcomed herself by going to the toy box, taking a toy, and running around the house playing with it. We did three days of training with the trainer at my house so that I could learn how to handle her and she could learn that I was her person, which was obvious from the time we met. Over the last four years, we have grown so much together and she is certainly my soul dog.
How My Life Has Changed
Poppy has changed my life in many ways. The two most important ways are safety and independence. I feel more safe being home alone, especially while sleeping because Poppy will alert me to the smoke alarms or carbon monoxide detectors going off in case of an emergency. This leads to how I can be more independent with her in my life before Poppy I relied on my mom or husband to wake me up in the mornings as I wouldn’t hear my alarms. I feel confident that I will not miss work because Poppy is there to wake me up every day. She also will alert me to all of the kitchen appliances going off such as the oven, microwave, toaster, and air fryer. This also creates independence because I can cook things on my own and not worry about burning them, which I was notorious for before Poppy!
She also knows the doorbell, door knock, and my name. If my husband is in the other room calling my name because he needs help, Poppy will locate him, come and tap me, and bring me to him, this can be helpful in many scenarios. Poppy’s newest task is to drop an object alert. For example, if I am walking in the store and drop my wallet, but do not hear it, Poppy will tap me to tell me that I dropped something and then bring me to the item that I dropped. With all of these tasks that she performs it has allowed me to feel safe and be more independent.
Advice From a Service Dog and Her Handler.
After receiving Poppy, I realized how much extra attention you get in public. As we ventured into public places, I saw how hard it can be when people are petting and grabbing my dog, telling me that I cannot have my dog in the store, and telling me that I didn’t “look” like I was disabled and needed a service dog. Over the past four years of having Poppy, I have learned how to navigate bringing her out and how to educate people on service dogs. If you see a service dog in public please talk to the person, not the dog.
As a service dog handler, I usually have no issues answering questions about the tasks she does and other questions about Poppy, but not every handler may want to answer questions at that moment and none of us want to answer questions about why we have a service dog and “what is wrong with us”. Please be kind to us as we are also just “normal” people trying to live our daily lives with the help of our service dog.
