Deaf Dog Training

I knew a girl a few years ago who’s dog had a litter of puppies, two of the puppies were deaf, she decided to keep one of them because she felt sorry for it and the other one was kept by her parents. None of the dogs got trained in any formal sense and the result was a headache for everyone concerned!

One of the puppies got destroyed after biting someone twice and the other one was discreetly relocated as a result of biting someone. It’s pretty hard to train a deaf dog but responsible dog owners will put in the effort of training their loved puppies.

People who need to know how to train a deaf dog are usually considering a puppy. You may have lost your heart to a rescue dog or a puppy that you saw, and then found out that it was deaf and you are wondering whether you will still be able to give it a home. Maybe your pet had puppies, and one of them is deaf. Or maybe you have a dog that has become deaf through accident or illness, and you are wondering whether you will still be able to train it and teach it new tricks.

The answer is that training a deaf dog is very simple, or at least, no harder than training a hearing dog. You just have to teach her to respond to body language and hand signals instead of your voice.

Signals used in dog training must be very clear. Start by picking out a signal for 'Yes' or 'Good dog'. A thumbs-up is a good clear signal for this, and you will easily remember it yourself.

You can begin the training by associating your 'Yes' signal with treats. When she happens to do something that you like and want her to repeat, give the 'Yes' signal and immediately give her a treat. This could be food or a toy.

Then you can move on to other signals, giving the new signal when she happens to do whatever behavior you want to reward, and then giving her 'Yes' and the treat. She will soon come to understand what each sign means.

You will need a way to get her attention. Stomping a foot on the floor can be good because she will often be able to feel the vibration even if she is not looking at you. Be sure to give the 'Yes' signal and the treat as soon as she looks around.

It is useful to have a visual signal for getting her to look at you too. You can use this to keep her watching you while you give the signal for another behavior. A wide movement of your arm bringing your hand up to your face is good for this. She will be able to see this from a distance. You will find that when she is running ahead on a walk, she will look back from time to time. You can make this signal to get her attention and then give the signal for 'Come here' to call her back to you.

You can buy a vibrating collar so that you can attract her attention even when she is out of sight on a walk. You carry a pager and 'buzz' her to get her attention. Once she is looking, you can give the 'Come here' signal to have her come back to you. Of course you must train her to respond to the collar first. You can do this at home by rewarding her for looking round at you when she feels the buzz.

You must be sure to always use the same signal for each command. Take care too that you choose something that is different from whatever gestures you may make in conversation or to communicate with other humans (for example, don't teach the dog to respond to the gesture that you make when waving someone hello or goodbye).

It is very important to be consistent in the messages that you are giving her. This is true of all dogs. If your hand signal (or your voice, with a hearing dog) is saying one thing and your body language or facial expression is saying another, the dog will be confused. So try not to signal your dog at the same time that you are telling your kids what you want from them. That is not how to train a deaf dog, and the kids will probably ignore you too!