'I trained hearing dogs for years - then needed my own'

When Kevin Rafferty from Ripon retired in 2015, he decided he wanted to foster and train hearing dogs to help deaf people. When he started to experience deafness himself a few years later, he needed a dog of his own.

"We started when we retired, in order to have a dog in the house again," remembers the 76-year-old.

"We thoroughly enjoyed it and always talked about the fact that the end result was going to be he was going to go and change somebody's life, as I now realise with Dexter."

Kevin is one of 68 people in Yorkshire who are currently partnered with a hearing dog, in his case a Cocker Spaniel named Dexter, from the charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People.

Trainers care for puppies from about eight weeks old until they are paired up with someone who needs a dog.

In that time, the dogs live with the trainer, attend weekly training sessions and practise skills they will need at home like alerting owners to smoke detectors, doorbells and alarm clocks.

After helping to train three dogs - Whiskey, Spike and Milton - for 18 months each, Kevin began to experience partial deafness himself and applied for his own dog.

"Steadily my hearing got worse and that was why people were saying; 'you're involved in hearing dogs, you need to think about one yourself'."

In 2022, Kevin's wife, Marilyn, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and he began caring for her at home.

However due to his deafness, he struggled to hear his wife call out for support in the night when he was asleep and there was a risk of her collapsing without him knowing.

"It means that you can't switch off, you've just got to try and make sure you're doing what you can and be there to do whatever is needed," recalls Kevin.

Marilyn died in April 2024 and although Kevin was not paired with a dog before her death, he decided to reapply for one to help him deal with anxiety he had around potentially not hearing smoke alarms while asleep.

"I wasn't sleeping that well. I would sleep, but not brilliantly, and that stress with everything else that was involved in the passing of Marilyn made life difficult."

In September 2025, Kevin was paired with Dexter, who moved in with him in December.

"When the alarm goes off, he wakes me up and then we have a bit of a cuddle and then we have a bit of a play fight and then he tells me it's breakfast time and we have to come down and get breakfast.

"He alerts me to the cooker timer and also we train with the smoke alarm - when that goes off he comes and tells me.

"That's the difference with taking me to the noise because he nudges me and takes me to the noise of the cooker timer but with the smoke alarm, he nudges me and then he lies flat and that's my signal to get out."

Dexter has not only supported Kevin with his deafness but has also acted as a companion as he manages the grief of losing his wife.

"When he came, it was just instant and he knows if I'm having a bit of an off day, he'll come and sit on my lap, he's very aware of my situation."

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People said it currently had 42 vacancies for full-time puppy and dog training volunteers, and 51 vacancies for volunteers to provide short-term holiday cover.

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