Deaf Dogs - Love And Challenges

Deaf Dog Awareness Week: September 18-24th

There are some days that I'm a big fan of Lily being deaf. Loud noises, thunderstorms, upstairs neighbors moving around, none of those seemed to bother her like it bothers other dogs.

Flashing lights, quick movements, and being in total darkness does.

Separation anxiety is somewhat common for deaf dogs. They learn to trust their humans and learn how things work from the human they associate with the most. Leaving to go to work became a daily ritual of treats, coaxing into a crate, and standing outside of the apartment door hoping today would be better and she wouldn't start barking non-stop for two hours. I know it was two hours because neighbors would come and tell me this, and I would apologize since there was really nothing I could do but keep working with her to make her feel more comfortable about being home alone.

Lily is pretty loud when she barks. The bark is high pitched as well. It seems to be missing more of the vocal range that one might hear in an adult dog. I have a theory that because she's mostly deaf, she's probably mimicking barking as best she can with what she can hear of herself. Some dogs adjust to this quickly and don't mind it. Others sense it as a weakness.

Over the last few years, she's had problems with other female dogs. The only fight she ever got in with a male was over a tennis ball he was obsessing over, and she stole it.

I've been socializing her since she was eight months old. It was my hope that this might counteract some of the breed instinct Kelpies have. This means I also have to watch my behavior around her in social situations. Especially now that she's an adult dog. If we go to dog parks, I don't sit down. I keep moving around the park. This is even more important when the number of dogs in the park is high compared to the amount of space. Working dog breeds need a lot of space. They are wired to roam with herds, so it's much easier for them to deal with other dogs in big spaces. If I do sit, it's far away from other owners in the park. It stinks for social reasons, but I've learned over time, the moments that I do sit and other dogs or owners are in the area, Lily becomes overly protective of me and this as resulted in some minor scuffles, mostly with other females.

I didn't always have to do this. It's the result of her maturing into an adult dog which made things a little more difficult for her. As a pup, older dogs were generally protective of her or wanted to play. When she reached about one and half years, I noticed a shift in attitude and behavior of other dogs towards her. From what I understand, this is not an uncommon thing for dogs in general. In Lily's case, it was a little harder for her to understand. She socialized easily, and still does, but now, there is an underlying instinct I've seen in some situations where if she thinks the other dog might jump, she'll react first. Sometimes I've been able to grab her before it gets too serious and other times, I've not been so lucky.

This might sound a little hokey but I also pay attention to the energy in the park. Excited, nervous and frustrated energy does not work well with Lily. She's an extremely empathetic dog. She's extremely good at picking up on my emotions even before I'm fully aware of them. Because of the sense she lacks, she's more quick to react on emotional instinct, either ignoring or not trusting other social queues. Also, I've had to learn when she and Bear are not comfortable, even if I am. I've been in a park no more than 10 minutes and left because of the energy levels and how my dogs were reacting to it.

We have developed hand signs between the two of us over the last few years which she has taken to fairly well. I don't think any of it's ASL. It's mostly signs between us that I think are obvious. Like "blanket" - I hold my two hands up like I'm holding a sheet of paper at the corners. She knows I am talking about her little squares of fabric she likes to tote around the house.

Another sign she picked up easier than "stop" or "no" was "bad". When we first started working together. I used leash to direct her a lot. Two gentle tugs meant sit, three meant stop/wait, one meant come along. It worked pretty well. I reinforced those commands with a thumb's up, with me saying "Good Girl!" She can't hear me, but my face says a lot. And she's an expert at reading it. Originally, I tried to get her to understand a "no" command, but the slashing hand motion I was using just wasn't clicking. She'd look at my hand, and I'm pretty sure for all the world, she thought I was just playing. It wasn't until I decided to give her a thumb's  down and a pretty serious frown to go with it that she instantly realized that she had done something I didn't like. Opposites. She got that pretty fast. This became "bad".

"Leave it" command was a little more complicated as I mimed a dropping motion, then an index finger pointing up to indicate I wanted her attention. "Drop" she figured out, but it takes a while if she's in a playful mood. "Leave it" was slightly more complicated. It was made simpler by training, adding a "stop" like gesture for the "Stay" command right after the "Leave it" command.

It was much easier for her to understand "Leave it" after Bear came to live with us. I think she understood it before, but when the other dog in the pack has worse impulse control than she does, and she get lots of praise for not going after the treat immediately, you can see the little light bulb come on in her head when she does the training exercises.

There is a ton of information on the web for owners and disabled dogs. Deaf Dogs Rock is great for reading up on techniques, advice and even adopting deaf dogs. If you have any other websites you'd like to recommend, feel free to leave them in the comments!

National Dog Day - And My New Blog Launches!

Hello Reader!

I'm sure this will be the first of many blog posts about my dogs and their antics. Also other information about groups and training ideas I read or practice on a daily basis. I've wanted to write/talk about my experiences with my two rescue pups for a while. I talk a lot about them to people who will listen, mostly patient friends and family.

First, this is not a perfect dog owner blog. I am not a perfect person and I'm sure, much like life, I don't do exactly the right things all the time. My pups are very forgiving of my failures thankfully. As they are sitting in my home office with me, relaxing in the morning sun, they probably don't care too much what I do as long a I'm near, they have food and water and a doggie door to run in and out of.

Let me introduce you to these fuzzballs of awesome:

LILY (Mouse)

At about 8 mo. old

 This crazy ball of fluff is an Aussie Cattle Kelpie/Jack Russel mix. She's also mostly deaf. I say mostly because she does respond to loud noise in some instances and I've whistled at times and it appears she might hear that as well. I know for a fact that she picks up on vibrations better than some humans.

I've had her since she was six months old. A friend of mine in Dallas couldn't keep her and pretty much the moment I saw the adorable face, I fell in love.  Her original name was Mouse. I changed it to Lily to match her ears, plus, I call her Lily Mouse sometimes. It fits.

It was a hard few weeks. I hadn't had a puppy in almost 30 years and she was smart, very smart, willful and so full of energy, I wasn't sure I would be able to keep up.

For example, she would go to doggy daycare three days a week, and on the off days, a dog walker would pick her up and take her to a park for a hour. I did this because I was working 8-10 hr days and didn't want her at home in a crate the whole time with the amount of energy she had. Even after all of that, she would come home, eat dinner and happily spend three more hours running around the small dog area the apartment complex had. She still had energy to spare.

I even broke down crying at one point early on from frustration.
Mostly it was a communication barrier, and

Lily, 4 - 2016

it took time, like anything does, to develop trust and get her to associate my hand signals for commands.

 With her though, it was more like requests. I couldn't command her to do anything. She either does it, or not. Thankfully, I learned pretty quickly what this dog will do for cheese, liver, duck and peanut butter. Apples are right out, along with carrots and most green things, except green bean crisps - lightly salted.

Over time, we learned each other. The last few years, she has been a constant joy in my life. We've had moments of bewilderment and misunderstandings, but she's very happy either running around a dog yard or sitting at home with me watching TV and resting her head on my lap.

I can't imagine what life would be like without her. I've been on trips halfway around the world, and people take care of her always commenting on how good she is and how well behaved. I keep wondering if we are talking about the same dog, or if she really is that good, like when you sent the kids to grandma's for the week. Instead of coming back all sugared up, she's pooped out from playing. I completely accept this trade-off.

Bear

I found Bear, I think, because the universe has a way of moving and you either pay attention or you don't. I wasn't in a great place the day I saw his rap sheet. It was raining. I had just broken up with my boyfriend about a week prior. My brother's birthday was the next day, and I was missing him more than usual. He passed in 1998 from injuries sustained in a car wreck we were both in.

It was also National Adoption Day/Weekend. A large number of the shelters in the area were in the parking lot of Pet Smart. Volunteers were frantically trying to get animals out of the rain, which was one of the typical Texas down pours. I was originally going to get crafting supplies, or that was the idea. I was going to take out my feelings via hot glue and glitter (don't judge, besides, it's fun!). But instead, I walked towards the cordoned off area where all of the animals were being kept. I walked from one group to the next. No one stopped me. I had my hood up. I was getting wet. I didn't care. The animals were a little panicked and I kinda felt like most of them. Out of place and unwanted.

I was just about to leave when one lady from the Georgetown Animal Shelter stopped me and asked if she could help me with anything thing. I had been wanting a second dog for a while. Lily was OK with other females most days, but some dogs didn't like her because of the deafness, and the odd way she barks. I've seen dogs look at her funny. I've seen people look at her funny for that matter. Either they like her or they just don't.  So, I had a good idea what kind of dog I was looking for. I replied to the lady, "I want a male Aussie Cattle, preferably about 1 to 2 years old and good with other dogs." She immediately said, "That's Bear."

My eyes went wide. I've looked before and while there are a lot of Aussie Cattle dogs in the shelters, most of them are less than a year old, most of them are females and most of them are really headstrong and don't do well with other dogs. Especially Kelpies. That sub-breed is known for being very protective of owners, livestock and kids.

Bear wasn't there in the area at the parking lot. But they showed me his picture and basically the ad you see here. I didn't get crafting supplies that day. I got back in my car and drove to the shelter to meet him.

Once I got there, I went to the office and they knew which dog I was asking for. I was introduced and he was bouncy, dragging the poor volunteer behind him and excited to go to the play yard. He got there, immediately ran around peeing on every tree there as I watched. He came back up to us and I was coached through the two commands he knew. Come and Sit. He barely did the first for me, and the second one he did only after I repeated myself with a little firmer voice. There was a sliver of trust there. I didn't want to make the wrong choice though. I left and said I would be back with Lily to see how the meet and greet went.

I brought Lily back the next day, about an hour before the place closed. She and I went to the back to the play yard while the volunteer got Bear. We let them meet each other and it went well, or as well as can be expected. Lily was nervous with all the smells and in a strange place. She wasn't keen on being friendly just at that moment. Bear wanted to play though. He did play bowing and dancing trying to get her to engage and Lily just kinda sat there. It wasn't the worst thing that could have happened, but it wasn't a bad start.

We finally dropped the leashes and let them wander around the yard together. Bear kept his distance at first, letting her wander around the yard smelling things. He tried to play with her again, and she ignored him mostly. Bear was learning what it was like to be with a deaf dog. This didn't deter him though. He kept trying to play bow, and get her attention. Eventually, when none of the other stuff worked, he picked up her leash and jogged her around the yard. He didn't drag her, just jogged. She had no choice but to follow and she did. She caught up with him and they ran most of the yard before he dropped the leash.

The volunteer and I stood there stunned, watching. And he did it a second time. I remember them running and then I remember Bear dropping the leash again, and Lily came to me. Winded, and in good spirits. Bear stayed towards the center of the yard. I looked at the volunteer next to me and that was it. Bear was mine and Lily's from that point on. I picked him up the next day. They have been two peas in a pod ever since.

That was September 2014. The last two years has seen us three through a lot of adventures. I'm looking forward to even more as time goes on.