Some people are afraid to adopt a deaf dog because they think it will be too hard or that training a dog requires practice and patience. A deaf pet does not differ from a hearing pet in many ways, but there are some differences on how to relate to it’s deafness.
Living with and training deaf dogs requires different forms of communication and greater awareness of the world around them. If your dog starts easily, the deaf can be more aggressive and cause problems for you and your family.
Training a deaf dog can be less challenging than you might think
Training a deaf dog can be less challenging than you might think, and even if your dog has no hearing impairment, it can respond more easily to visual cues than to voice commands.
Use clear and unambiguous hand signals to teach the dog basic commands like “sit” and “stay” or “down” for a good dog. Keeping and down, good for dogs, is best for hearing dogs and not for deaf dogs.
Training a deaf dog can be difficult, but not impossible
Training a deaf dog can be difficult, but not impossible, and you can teach your dog to use a visual vocabulary by combining the hand signals used in dog obedience training with basic American sign languages.
At Deaf Dogs on the Rock you will find a basic training for hand sign dogs and also the training for deaf dogs can be taught with visual vocabulary through the use of hand signs.
Behavioral problems
Once you learn more about your deaf dog’s personality and find out what can cause behavioral problems, you can formulate a training plan that communicates clearly without the need for verbal cues. If you have any questions about training for deaf dogs or one of the other Deaf Dogs on the Rock services, please call them and they can help you. contact them them using their contact form or call their office at 800 – 649 – 7297.
Developing communication modes
It is recommended that owners start developing communication modes that can complement standard audio prompts. Using this approach with a hearing pet can facilitate faster adaptation should deafness occur later. In fact, Schwan notes that it is not a bad idea to use a variety of different communication methods with pets, even those with hearing loss, to communicate.
Some owners use American Sign Language (ASL), but hand signals that the dog understands should work well. Although it may seem daunting at first glance, the truth is that training a deaf dog can be as easy as training a hearing dog. This means that if your dog is hard of hearing, abandon traditional training methods and adapt to the use of a variety of different communication methods, for example by teaching him what you want him to do.
Consistency, patience, and other tactics
You simply need to use consistency, patience, and other tactics to get him to learn, and you will have to rely on silent forms of communication. Training a deaf dog requires patience.
In order to use visual cues and markings, your dog must look at you so that you can use them, and you must look at him.
So getting your dog’s attention is one of the most important things you want to work on, and the first thing you need to do when he loses his hearing is to learn a new way to communicate with him.
The inclusion of hand signals in your verbal training commands can cause hearing loss to progress slowly. With this new training, new skills are added for which your dog is well trained despite hearing loss.
Dogs hearing loss is so severe that you simply need time to get used to it, just as you need some time with your deaf dog.
The more physical cues you teach your deaf dog, the easier it will be for him to stay in touch and understand your commands. Just because your dog is getting older and suffering from hearing loss or deafness does not mean that it cannot communicate with you and your family. Changing the way he communicates can ease his hearing loss and vice versa.
Deaf animals learn in the same way as hearing animals
It was only when I started to prepare for this article, that I realized how frightening many people find it to have a dog born deaf. Deaf animals learn in the same way as hearing animals, but the more often an animal behaves, the better if it is rewarded.
If you are worried that you cannot live with a deaf dog, learn hand signals and commands and visit different YouTube channels in this regard, just type in the search box, how to train a deaf dog? or how to communicate with a deaf dog? You will be able to learn from many videos varieties, on how to communicate with your deaf dog.
Our dogs, Soul and Odin
The dogs in the featured picture, are our dogs. Soul and Odin. Soul is a female and Odin is a male. Odin is a deaf dog. We managed to communicate with Odin without the need of a dog trainer.
We managed to train Odin based on love, care, efforts an patience. He has learned the necessary signals, like Good boy with thumb up, bad boy with thumb down, sit by the 5 hand’s thumbs down. Stay by the 5 hands thumbs up. Come or let’s go by hands signal waving to come to you. etc…
Actually training Odin as a deaf dog, was like training a normal dog, the only difference, is that you use different hands signals in commands and not giving commands by talking to the dog. So, you just need to use treats while teaching the commands, as a reward every time you teach your deaf dog a command.