Raising Silent Sailor- A Book On My Experiences Of Raising A Deaf Blue Heeler

[Raising Silent Sailor]

Greetings Everyone! I'm looking for some input on areas that I should cover in a book that I'm writing in regards to my deaf dog. Our Blue Heeler (her name is Sailor) was born deaf 5 yrs ago and I'm in the process of collecting my on-going experiences on raising her. What would be beneficial to cover in this book for first time perspective dog owners? May you provide me some input?

 

[dogmom]

Hi RaisingSilentSailor! Congrats on your book and also hi to your beautiful ACD girl...I'm a trainer and have worked with deaf dogs. One of the myths people have out there is that deaf dogs are inherently more "dangerous" or "un-predictable" because they allegedly startle easily; also that they're "stubborn" and harder to train. My experience with many novice dog training clients is that they are expecting difficulties because they can't use verbal cues, and people<mistakenly> believe that dogs utilize aural/oral cues/communication the way hearing people do. Dogs are inherently more VISUAL and communicate naturally through body language and visual motion <which is why I advocate teaching visual cues first and also advocate a variety of communication methods with dogs>. You could explain ways of getting your girl's attention and also the use of things like tactile collars <that vibrate - NOT talking about punishment-based collars> You could touch on the idea of focusing on the wonderful things you and she do together, and that she is not "handicapped", nor does she need to be pitied. So those are some thing you could cover.

 

[LadyZephyr]

...use of things like tactile collars <that vibrate - NOT talking about punishment-based collars>.

Ah! Do you have a recommendation on one of those collars? I have two senior Chihuahuas, one of whom has already lost her higher frequencies. I was trying to decide if I was going to have to rig my own vibrating collar or teach one of our younger dogs to 'fetch' her if she was too far away (this would be during potty let outs-- if we were out in public she'd be on a leash obviously.)

 

[Cappy]

Dogs are inherently more VISUAL and communicate naturally through body language and visual motion

Hi dogmom, just curious...do you use dhh sign language when training deaf dogs? Or do you use standard dog training signs?

 

[dogmom]

hello LadyZephyr - am sorry that I don't have personal experience using or fitting a vibrating collar, I just know -of- them. The shelter dogs who are deaf that I 've worked with have just the regular collars, because of funding and rarity of need, I imagine. If you check out sites like Deaf Dogs Rock https://deafdogsrock.com/ maybe you can email someone there to seek advice; they may also have comments or articles online there regarding the collars. Actually- I just found this on tehre: https://deafdogsrock.com/vibration-collars-for-deaf-dogs
and: also found this from a different site: http://www.deafdogs.org/training/vibratrain.php

 

[dogmom]

Hello, Cappy! I use a combination, depending on the situation - with the shelter dogs, we have standard visual cues we use as part of the program there with which I'm involved, which are closer to, or sometimes are - the trad. hand signals found in trad. obedience. Since this a shelter-run program I'm involved in, things are standardized to a great degree. As far as I know, all the dogs adopted through this specific volunteer program I'm in <the dogs of which are a subset of the overall shelter dogs available for adoption> have gone to homes with hearing families. I'm hoping that if we had a Deaf family adopt one of the dogs, we'd get a terp in and start working on the ASL signs the adopter wanted to use in the home.
We also use the "thumbs up" common overall for deaf dogs.

With my own dogs I use a combination and if I had a Deaf client personally I lean toward some ASL signs and some classic dog training cues such as the trad. hand sweeping motion for the recall - but would do what the client would like.