Living with and communicating with a deaf dog?

Question

I may be bringing in a deaf dog from the shelter and I was currious if anyone here has experience with them. My only experience with them is helping an owner with touch and basic obedience hand commands. I was told the dog I am bringing in has had train and recognizes foot stomp come command, sit, down rollover. I suspect he might have a larger ASL vocabulary like walk and stuff. I am waiting for the book "living with deaf dogs" that i ordered but in the meantime does anyone have any other suggestions for good commands and phases I might start practicing? Any past exeriences with your deaf dog would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I recently adopted a deaf dog. His name is Bronco and he is a sweety. The best thing is to be patient, but if he/she is all ready trained that shouldn't be hard. I know my dog has very bad seperation anxiety and people have told me its so bad because he doesn't get to have that connestion with me where he can hear my voice, hear me say good dog when I pet him or talk to him a cute little baby voice lol. But he is amazing. I'm sure everything will be fine, just be patient and love him/her just as much. = )   http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/pp202... ......my Bronco  

Answer 2

I took a deaf foster dog to an obedience class with both hearing and hearing-impaired dogs.  Blake passed the class and got his certificate.  The first sign we learned was look at me.  The sign I find most helpful with all dogs is the stay, especially a long down-stay.  There are signs for wait, be careful, and slow down.  When you go for walks, your dog will "read" the leash. We also used lights to let Blake know where we were.  Blake got around well and no matter where we went, people were always surprised when they found out he was deaf.  It's great that you're giving this dog a chance.  There are not many people out there who'd consider adopting a dog with disabilities.

Answer 3

No one should be foolish enough to use ASL with a dog.  Dogs' first language is body language so to try to use extensive signing is a waste.  Hand signals are usually quick and singular in most instances and body language is watched as well.  I don't understand why anyone would want to complicate it by using ASL?  I understand the stomp recall as the dog has to see you before it can see a command and the stomp will get them to turn/come to you but singular hand signals is all that is needed.  If the dog has been trained previously, and you don't know what they were trained in, it doesn't matter.  Just retrain it to your body language and commands - all you need to do is like with any training, be consistent and repetitive and let the dog know what it is you are wanting for specific cues.  I really wouldn't do a ton of training though if you are only going to foster as the dog will have to be retrained to the body language of the forever home it goes to.  Keep it simple is the best thing you can do for this or any dog.

Answer 4

http://www.positivedogtraining.org/artic...