We "adopted" a deaf American Bulldog in April 2010. It was just supposed to be a foster situation to keep her from being put down. Suprisingly, my DH, who wasn't at all thrilled about it, is the one that's become attached and won't let me place her so she's here to stay and has become daddy's girl. I pretty much don't rate with her when he's around. Akosha was about 7-8 months old when I brought her home. Her previous owners had taught her a couple of signs but otherwise hadn't really worked with her. She came with baggage, which was expected, and which we slowly figured out as we went along. We couldn't figure out for a while why she was okay with our short coated dogs but aggressive with the Keesies. Especially over food and water. It took some pestering but her former owners finally admitted that their Pekenese mix (long hair) attacked her over food when she was little and ripped her right bottom eyelid open. She's wary and barks at any long haired dog she sees so I get her out to socialize her as much as I can but our vet thinks because of her history she may never get over that. She LOVES her people, especially kids. She extremely smart and has continually suprises me how quickly she picks up new signs. She's also learned that if she doesn't look at us, we can't scold her because she can't see us scolding her by signing NO. DH has taken a bit longer to get the signing down and still forgets that she can't hear him. Funny story...I was at the back of the house one day when I hear DH hollering her name. She slipped out the front door. I look across the dog yard to see her running towards the barn, DH chasing her yelling "Akosha, come!" I yelled " Hon, she can't hear you", so he starts using the sign for come while still yelling for her. I said "Hon, she can't see you either...how's that working for you?" About that time, she ran into the barn through the side door. Now, at this point, she's not been introduced to the horses and one of the stalls is right there. She came out the door backwards faster than she went in, crashed into DH and knocked him flat on his hiney. Fortunately, the only thing injured was his pride, but he was so mad. I hate to say all I could do was laugh but I did ask him if he was okay. Here's our Koshie Daddy's girl Favorite tuggy
No dog, but I had a deaf cat. I also talked to her, for all the good it did. She was maybe the best cat I ever had. The only sign she learned was that if I stomped on the floor that meant "No" Didn't work so well when I lived in a ground floor apt, on a slab. Imp- had sore feet there. Akoosha looks like a nice dog- intelligent eyes.
I had a deaf and partially blind pug, I he would some times not be able to find me and I would stomp on the floor and he would be able to figure out where I was. I also called his name all the time, couldn't break myself of it ! Best dog ever.
I've never owned a deaf dog, but my wife owns a semi-deaf husband. I use that "I didn't hear you Hon" defense all the time. It even works sometimes. Very pretty dog you have there too. Looks very smart.
Quote:I have one of those husbands too. He'll swear I didn't tell him something even if I've told him a dozen times. She is too smart for her own good.
I have a vibration training collar I'll use if we're doing a training session but she mostly ignores it. Now, using food is a different story. I've found the squirt bottle is very effective as a deterent.
Very pretty dog! We recently lost our dog (my avatar) and found an older pup at a shelter 5 hours from our new home that is deaf. We wrote them and submitted the application and said if he's not adopted by the time we move (the end of the month) we'd like to take him. They of course are estatic. They said he's great w/dogs, cats, kids, etc., and everyone is interested in him until they learn he is deaf. He was fostered for awhile and began training with hand signals and caught on really quick, but we know it'll take time and we have it. I work part time and DH works from home. They approved us and once we are unpacked we'll go pick him up. DSD is excited, she's taking ASL and thinks it'll be great to be able to teach the dog signs. My only worry is him getting loose, he'd never hear a car, and that could be tragic, so everyone will have to be especially careful. On the bright side DH wanted to name his next dog Rodchester, DSD and I veto'd that, but now if he wants he can call him whatever he wants and we'll call him what we want and the dog won't get confused! Here's his picture from Harbor Humane Society.
