Hi, I'm new and the mom of Devil Dog

[devildogowner]

Hi Everyone,
I found this site looking for some dog tricks. I just started to bring my 4 year old huskie/lab to dog training and we will have a show and tell at the end. Devil Dog is sweet but is used to getting pampered. We also have a 13+ year old German Shepard mix who is deaf so it's hard to train the younger dog when the older dog wants to get into the action and she can't hear you! Anyone else have a dog who'se deaf?

 

[Jean Cote]

Ah that sucks that your older dog is going deaf. I'm sure you could use a light as a marker signal instead of a clicker tho. Although it would limit what you can train.

 

[rightturn]

I don't have a deaf dog, but I have done a bit of training with a partially deaf dog, and he picked up hand commands very, very fast! I use both hand and vocal commands with my dogs, but Herbee (the part deaf one) only responds to hand commands. Still, he knows as much as my two dogs and is still learning. He can learn everything they do, just in a slightly different way. Being consistant with hand commands is probably the number one thing, and staying patient! Good luck!

 

[zcoonhound]

I think that if you use the hand signals along with voice and clicker on the hearing dog, that the older dog would be able to pick up the behavior by association.
Welcome to the Academy, glad you joined. The training progession of the older dog would make a great Blog. Come on over to the monthly challenge forum and see what we have been working on in March.

 

[stormi]

Hi and welcome.

I know of a couple of deaf dogs that train in obedience and agility. They rely a lot on hand or body signals and facial expression. If you are consistent and make the praise bit very obvious I am sure you will be able to get your GSD X to understand too. My friend also tried out a vibrating collar on her deaf dog (she was part of a trial). She used it to signal to her dog to stop (important for safety if the dog was running away and obviously wouldnt be able to see or hear a stop command if she had been running towards danger).