Does anyone else own a deaf dog?

[b.hromada]

She is beautiful.

We have a deaf pit bull/shepard (sp) mix. Funny thing, he doesn't look the least bit shepard either! He is mostly white also. I have found that a lot of pit breeds are deaf too.

 

[Stacykins]

My parents dog, Noah, my beloved friend growing up has grown deaf in his old age. He is a 14 year old Labrador dalmatian mutt (we know his exact parentage because he was an adoption from another military family when he was two). We know he has always been hard of hearing, but not completely deaf. Now age took its toll. We are sure to stomp on the ground a few times if we need to wake him for potty calls or other things. He would never bite us, but he can be startled if we touch him and he was sleeping. He is mostly the same, it can just be difficult finding him sometimes when he is sleeping somewhere in the house, since he can't hear us calling him!

My neighbors dog who I petsat a lot growing up became blind and deaf in her old age too. I was also the go-to gal for weekend petsitting, letting her out in the afternoon after school, etc. because she adored me. She was kind of a one family dog and wary of nearly all strangers, but somehow accepted me into her pack. When she was going deaf she was very hard to find in the house, just like Noah! I hated having to look in bedrooms for her (I consider that off limits since that is personal space) but I had to to find her sometimes, lol. I did some foot stompies, she would wake up and then be all excited because even though she was blind, she knew my scent. Her blindness wasn't a huge issue, since they made sure not to rearrange any furniture, so she knew where to go. I sometimes had to lead her back to the house from in the yard time, though, I just put my hand on her shoulder and walked, and she followed my lead. Gosh, she was such a sweetheart, I miss her dearly (she passed away at the ripe old age of 16 last year).

In both cases, since the dogs were elderly, no additional training was or has been done. However, my aunt's adopted German shepherd, who was only two years old and as deaf as a post from many untreated ear infections, learned sign language very quickly. He was the typical GS, smart as a whip and eager to please.

 

[akpeeps]

We recently had Koshie spayed and asked our vet if he could take a look at her ears while she was under. We've been battling the chronic infection since we've had her. That was what her first trip the vet was for a couple of days after bringing her home. Well, it turned out that her ears would never have cleared up with standard treatment. He got in there with the laparascope and found that both eardrums were completely ruptured and the space just filled with debris.

He put it on CD and showed us the procedure. OMG! I felt so bad, but he said without going in there like that they couldn't really see the extent of it all with the regular ear scope. He said this was something that had been going on for a very long time, likely before we got her. It was bad enough that he thought it could be part of the reason for her deafness. So as her eardrums heal up, we'll watch for signs that she hears things but there may just be too much scar tissue.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Quote:
That's my Icee. She has an awesome nose on her. She was out running around the yard yesterday, and I saw the neighbor coming up the road with Cherry to play. I gave Katie her sign for Cherry and she went to the gate to wait. Icee was doing battle with one of my roosters at the back fence when her nose went straight up. The wind was blowing because another storm was coming, and she started her walking in circles tracking the scent. By the time the neighbor had reached the corner just across from our house Icee was whining knowing that Cherry and her mom were close by. She amazes me everyday how she is able to cope with the world that she can't see or hear.

 

[genuck]

Here is my little Marco, he gets around great for not being able to see or hear!

 

[akpeeps]

AWWWWWW!

 

[dkvart1]

Oh is he ever cute! What beautiful coloring!

 

[CoyoteMagic]

ooooooooooo he's a cutie!!