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!
