I was finishing up with a group obedience class when I noticed a lady walk into the room and take a seat. She waited until the class filtered out
and then approached me. As soon as she walked up I could tell that she was upset.
I stuck my hand out to shake hers and introduce myself. Before I could
she said, "I don't think you'll be able to help me train my dog."
Okay, I thought. Is her dog Cujo and wants to shred people and dogs, is her dog super hyper
and would rather run laps than do obedience, before I could ask her why she thought that I couldn't help she said:
"My dog is deaf and a friend of mine said
you may be able to help". I told her that her friend was right and that I could and have trained deaf dogs before. We started the next day and within a few weeks her
dog was responding to her commands and she was very happy.
Anyway, training a deaf dog is not impossible. Since your dog cannot hear the command you
need to teach your dog hand signals--but, that requires getting his attention.
Attention is the foundation for all dog training. When you have your dog's
attention you can get your dog to do any command. With a deaf dog we can't vocally get your dog's attention so we have to use touch.
Make sure you are
close to your dog. Take a small, light bean bag and toss it towards your dog. When the bag touches your dog make sure you immediately get your dog's attention. As
soon as your dog looks at you quickly reward your dog with a treat.
Repeat this over and over. You want your dog to look at you if the bean bag touches or
lands near your dog. As soon as your dog looks at you, you can start to teach your dog obedience by using hand signals.
Dogs actually respond better to
hand signals than verbal commands. Much of the communication between dogs is non-verbal. Your dog naturally reads your body language. With a deaf dog you
just need to get your dog's attention and then practice the hand signals over and over until your dog does the command.
Use a lot of rewards when you first
start training your deaf dog. Positive reinforcement should always be used in the beginning stages of training.
Good Luck!
