RCA, Alaska's First Certified Hearing Dog

By Donna Lindsay
Puttin' on the Dog

RCA is 15 years old and in quite good health, considering her advanced years. She came to Alaska from Alabama. Because the housing market was tight and there was pitbull-hysteria in the air, her owners couldn't find a place to rent that would allow pitbulls and she was eventually sent to the Alaska SPCA in Anchorage.

A friend of mine, John Ledum, was trying to start a hearing-dog program in Alaska. He and a local veterinarian, Dr. Joyce Murphy, temperament-tested 170 dogs and RCA scored the highest, so she was chosen to be the first hearing dog in Alaska. At the time she completed her training and was certified, there was talk of banning pitbulls in the city of Anchorage and the SPCA was concerned about placing her with someone who might have to give her up. So they decided to make RCA their demonstration dog because it would also promote the idea that pitbulls are smart, loving animals with good temperaments.

As a demonstration dog, she made numerous trips all over to Alaska and the lower 48 states. Her demonstrations helped raise funds to finance the training of more hearing dogs. But her favorite demonstrations were at elementary schools because after working, she would get to go down a long line of children and kiss them all. Then John would take her through the drive-up at the nearest McDonald's and reward her with a hamburger of her very own. She's got scrapbooks with letters from about 700 schoolchildren and once had a full-page feature story written about her in the Anchorage Times newspaper.

I first met RCA when she was first in training and living with her trainer, John. I was captivated by her charm and obedience. Later, when I got my first Sheltie and I would bring him over to John's to visit, she was incredibly tolerant to this rambunctious puppy and would bring him toys to play with. Of course, her favorite toy was a tug toy and she always won.

If anyone had told me I'd ever own one of these dogs I would've told them they were crazy, but about that time I let it be known that if she ever retired, I'd love to take her. And that's just what happened. After about five years of working, she was getting a little burned out and when her trainer left the SPCA, he decided to let her retire and come to live with us. He couldn't keep her because he had been living in the training facility and he couldn't find a place that would rent to him with a certified-hearing dog that happened to be a pitbull. That was before they enacted legislation giving hearing dogs the same privileges as seeing-eye dogs. She started her life with us eight years ago when she was seven years old.

Over the years, she has tolerated many puppies and cockatiel chicks. She'll lie down so the puppies can play with her more easily and lets the chicks chew on her ears. She's the one dog I always trust to tolerate human babies and small children, not to go ballistic when someone walks too close to the car and she loves everyone. We joke that if a burglar ever came in, she'd show him around and let him take her for a ride in the getaway car.

RCA's greatest joys in life are to go for rides in the car and to rescue logs out of our favorite lake. Her main pastime is sleeping, of course--she's very good at that. She's selectively deaf now, particularly when we want her to move over on the bed to make room for us, and her sight is going (but currently stable), and she's a bit arthritic, but the vet says she's healthy enough to give us a few more years of her splendid company.

Postscript: RCA died of cancer on June 29, 1997 at age 16. She was sick a very short time and was active until the last few hours. She did not suffer.