How is the best way to train a deaf puppy?

Question

I have a 4 month old Queensland Heeler who is deaf. At first I thought she just wasn't paying attention, but I can drive in in my diesel pickup and she doesn't hear THAT. I know you can train dogs with hand signals, but she is such a high energy ball of fire that it is just about impossible to get her to pay attention. I need some suggestions to make her pay attention enough so I can even start to train her hand signals. I don't want to use harsh methods and make her cower, but it is imperative that she learn some manners and limits. She is so high energy that she won't even slow down when you pet her! Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm thinking of changing her name to Helen Keller!

Answer 1

The basic method behind training a deaf dog is the same as training a hearing dog (or any animal): Reward behavior you want to see repeated, and prevent rewards for behaviors you don’t want. Dogs do what works — if a certain action results in something they want, they will repeat it.

Of course you need a way of communicating with your deaf dog. It’s easy to use visual signals for deaf dogs. Even hearing dogs rely more on vision and body language (after all, dogs don’t use spoken words when they interact with each other). You can take advantage of your dog’s vision, and also their sense of touch and maybe also their ability to smell.

You will mostly be communicating with your dog through hand signs. Think about what signs you will use before you try to train them. Hand signals must be: clear
distinguishable from other signs and gestures you commonly use
visible from a distance, and
consistent.


Don’t forget facial expressions and body language, too, though. Your dog will be reading you for that!

Your first step will be to establish a sign which means “Yes!” or “That’s correct, you’ve earned a reward!”. An easy one is a quick thumbs-up, or a flash of your entire hand, fingers spread wide apart. You can teach your dog what this means by linking your “Yes!” sign with something your dog likes. Food treats work really well in initial stages of training, but don’t forget fun toys, exciting games, favorite activities, and good petting, rubbing, and scratching. Simply sign “Yes!” and immediately give your dog a treat. Repeat this a few times. Look for your dog’s reaction to the “Yes!” sign — if she pricks up her ears or looks towards the treats, you know she’s catching on. At the same time you can say “Yes!” or “Good dog!” out loud — if you mean it, she’ll learn your facial expression (and it may help you to remember to reward her).

Once you have this sign trained, you can start using it to teach your dog to do what you want. A very important behavior for the deaf dog is “Pay attention” or “watch me”. You’ll need another hand sign for this. I like sweeping an index finger up to the front of your face, forming a sort of “J” in the air as you move it; or tapping your finger next to your eye. You can also teach your dog to look towards you when you stomp your foot — on certain surfaces your dog will be able to feel that through the floor or ground and know to look at you. If you get (or make) a vibrating collar for your dog, you can teach her that a short vibration means “watch me” (and a longer one can mean, “come”).

To train your dog to watch you, all you need to do at first is reward her for doing it. If she’s looking at you, make your “Yes!” sign and reward her. If you need to, you can “lure” her to look at you with a piece of food or a favorite toy — simply wave it in front of her nose and bring it up near your face. Immediately sign “Yes!” and reward her. As she gets comfortable “watching” you, sign “Watch me” as she’s doing it, then sign “Yes!” and reward her. This way she’ll learn what the “Watch me” sign means.

You can play the “Eye contact game” with your dog by putting a desired treat or toy in your hand and moving both hands behind your back. Wait until your dog glances from the treats to your face. Immediately sign “Yes!” and give her the treat. As she catches on to this, you can leave the treat-hand at your side for a few repetitions, then make it even harder by turning away from her so she has to actively seek out your face to make eye contact.

Now your dog knows it’s worth her while to watch you, and knows when she’s going to be rewarded. It’s time to start teaching her some action commands.

The best way to teach any animal to perform an action is to catch them in the act of doing it and reward them. For example, if your dog sits down, you can reward her for sitting. To let her know why she’s suddenly getting a food treat or special attention from you, use your “Yes!” sign at the moment she sits to mark her action. When you’re pretty sure you can predict that your dog is about to sit, you can make a sign for “sit” just before she does it, then follow that up with “Yes!” and a treat.

You can’t always catch your dog doing the action you’re looking for. An alternative is to use “luring”. Luring is especially good for teaching hand signals (in fact hearing dogs have a hard time transferring their cue from the luring hand to the verbal signal). For “sit”, hold a food treat or a favorite toy in front of your dog’s nose. Move it slowly back over her heard, aiming for the space just between her ears. If she’s interested enough in the treat, her nose will follow it. Most dogs will lower their butts to the ground as their nose follows the treat. You can immediately sign “Yes!” and give her the treat. After you practice this a few times, see if your dog will sit without the lure. The first time she does, she has earned a “jackpot” — an extra amount of treats, or at least one really special one.

Turn your lure into a hand signal by not holding a treat but making the same motion for the next repetition. If she sits, sign “Yes!” and give her the treat. After this, if you need to use a treat to lure her, don’t give it to her as a reward. Pet her and “praise” her with your body language for a moment, then immediately try the hand motion without the food in your hand. If she sits without the food lure, she gets “Yes!”/treat. If she’ll only sit if she sees the treat “up front”, she hasn’t done enough to earn it.

You can “capture” with your “Yes!” sign anything that your dog does right. You can formally train some actions such as “lie down” this way, or you can use it to reinforce general good behavior you see and like. Use “Yes!” and a treat to reward your dog for walking without pulling, for greeting without jumping, for choosing a toy instead of the furniture or the cat as a plaything.

One of the most important thing you can teach your dog to do is to come when you call her. You’ll need to practice this “recall” a lot before it becomes a habit for your dog to respond to you. Start while your dog is already looking at you. Let her know that you have something that she’d like, and take a few steps backwards. As she follows you, make a sign for “Come” and then sign “Yes!”. When she gets to you, give her the treat. Traditionally the signal for “Come” is holding your hand straight out to your side, palm facing the dog, then sweep the palm of your hand towards your chest. This is pretty visible from a distance.

Make sure that you use fantastic rewards for “Come”. Think of the alternatives from your dog’s point of view — would she rather try your reward, or would she rather chase squirrels, investigate smells, play with other dogs, etc.? If you are consistently very rewarding when you signal “Come”, your dog will be more willing to “bet” that your reward will out-rank the other possibilities available to her.

I highly recommend having a vibrating collar that operates on a remote that you can carry with you. (The collar should vibrate, not shock). It acts as a vibrating pager, to let the dog know you want her even if she’s not looking at you. Teach her it’s pleasant by “paging” her and giving her a treat. Then “page” her, take a few steps backwards (sign “come” if she already knows it), then sign “Yes!” and reward her as she comes towards you.

You might think that you would need to teach your dog a sign that means “No!”, too. But for most dogs, "no" is just an interrupter, something that causes a dog to stop what he's doing. A very friendly method - one apparantly used by Patricia McConnell, is to teach "no" as the same thing as "come" - stop what you're doing and come to me (for a reward). Now obviously if you called a dog to you and rewarded him each time he engged in some behavior, like chasing the cat, he might think that that chasing the cat is a good thing, because it leads to a recall + reward. So you're back to management.

Remember, it’s only fair to your dog that you try to teach her what is correct to do before you try to scold her for doing something wrong. So if you fear your dog might sometimes chas the cat, be sure to sign “Yes!” and reward her if she ever treats the cat nicely (or ignores him), before you resort to using “No!”. Your dog wants to know when she’s getting it right; don’t make her afraid to guess — and don’t make her associate the cat only with scary aversives! (For more on using "No", see the "Don't Say No?" Training Tip here.)

While there are some signs and actions, like “sit”, “down”, and “come”, that you will probably train formally, your dog can learn others just in day-to-day uses. You can pair a unique sign with almost any activity your dog normally does - going potty, getting down off of furniture, getting to go in the car, going to bed or into a crate, fetching a toy, or going on a walk. You can teach a different sign for different toys or other objects as well.

A couple of general tips: Until you’ve established a really good recall (“come”), don’t let your dog off-leash outside in an unfenced area. If your dog does get loose, make sure that you have your name and phone number on a collar tag. You might even want to state on the tag that she’s deaf. Additionally, it would be very wise to get your dog tattooed with an ID number and/or get your vet to insert a tiny microchip. The chip would carry an ID number that any vet or shelter could read. They call a central phone number and are given your contact name and phone number.

Make sure that you don’t startle your deaf dog by “sneaking up on her”, especially if she’s asleep. To wake a deaf dog, place your hand near her nose so she’ll smell you, or scratch the floor or pillow near her so she’ll feel that. Since she may be startled, you can make waking up or sudden touches more pleasant by immediately offering her a treat. You can actually condition your dog to find being startled to be pleasant — just associate something she likes (such as a food treat) with a startle. Watch strangers (especially children) and don’t let them touch her unless she’s recognized that they’re there.

Consider training your dog to follow a scent track. This could help her find her way home or back to you when she can’t hear you calling.

Answer 2

Best trained with PATIENCE. :)

Any dog that is hyperactive may be a little difficult to train. With a deaf dog, it may be a challenge, but not impossible. Hand training is actually easier even for a normal dog. Learn all about hand training. Now, the most important part of training, is to get your dog's attention. Try anything, some dogs dig for food, others for a chance to play or some attention. Once you get her attention, then you can begin the hand signal training. It may be tough in the beginning, but with patience and perseverance, you'll get a well behaved dog.

I'd also suggest that you still give vocal commands along with your hand signals. Although deaf, they may still be able to feel the vibration of your vocals. That is why some dogs who got deaf later in their lives, the deafness went unnoticed by their owners, because those dogs are still able to respond to the vibration of your voice.

Answer 3

Hi, I understand that you are looking for some advice or resources to help fully train your dog or fix behavior problems. If a professional dog trainer is not an option at this time, or if you want to trt training your dog on your own (a great way to bond), I'd suggest you https://bitly.im/aMRTN

A friend recommened it to me a few years ago, and I was amazed how quickly it worked, which is why I recommend it to others. The dog training academy also has as an excellent home training course.

Answer 4

Wow that is tough. I had a deaf cat at one point and when it was in the house I stomped on the floor instead of the verbal "kitty kitty kitty" What wver hand signal you use you will have to give the dog the signal and then (for example) make him sit. You will have to be constant with it or it will confuse him. Good Luck!

Answer 5

We used sign language and taught our deaf dalmation to Sit, Lay down, and come on command. It is difficult to get them to pay attention some times but no that much more difficult then teaching a dog that can hear.

The deaf dogs might be able to help

Answer 6

Use positive reinforcement to get her to pay attention. IE Cut up very small pieces of bacon and give it to her when she's paying attention. It worked for my dog. Just keep a small zip lock bag of it in your pocket. Soon, she won't need a treat at all. You could also stomp your foot once to get her to look at you (she should feel the vibrations on the floor). Good luck and don't forget to rate people's answers. :-)

Answer 7

Hand signals. Get more details from the A>S>P>C>A and or the library.

Answer 8

Oh No! I own a deaf dogs that grow to be born a hundred% deaf. if your Dad is heavily indignant over this please evaluate returning the dogs. A deaf dogs desires to have the skill to have faith his ecosystem and people one hundred fifty% devoid of hesitation. you are able to in no way hit a deaf dogs no longer that any dogs ought to ever be in spite of the undeniable fact that it so important to no longer spank a deaf one. Deaf canines are very diverse by way of nature than listening to canines. they relies upon on you for all of their cues. coaching is amazingly hassle-free until eventually their human makes it complicated for them to earnings. by way of this I propose you ought to arise with hand indicators that the completed family is going to apply for each command. if that's the slightest bit diverse than the subsequent individual she will have the skill to no longer comprehend what you're asking her to do. those may be the two made up indicators or american standard indicators. I used my own for my dogs. My dogs is conscious over 25 palms indicators. For potty coaching you will do it the comparable way as a listening to dogs. you will take her out and component to the floor. you are able to nevertheless discuss along with her as she will have the skill to start to earnings your facial expressions once you're chuffed and once you're mad at her. while she is going SMILE and clap your palms. tell her good woman and puppy her. while she has an twist of destiny provide her the finger shake with your pointer finger and tell her no. Deaf canines in some procedures are much less annoying to coach as they haven't any distractions with noise. Biting is the comparable component you nevertheless say no and component and wave your finger. you ought to arise with a 2nd no for once you're extremely dissatisfied along with her. This 2nd no will propose you propose employer. i exploit my hand like it s biting. I do it very quickly and sharp. do no longer use marvel collars on a deaf dogs. it is so important to desensitize this dogs to the touch. They startle very actually once you come back up from at the back of and in case you do no longer practice and touch her invariably she will have the skill to snap because of the fact she is nerve-racking. in no way enable everybody to wake her up by way of touch settle for the those that have worked along with her. Please e mail in case you desire help. it is on my profile. There are too many stuff to renowned, learn and record right here approximately deaf canines. it is amazingly unlucky there is not any longer lots of suggestion accessible and what you will locate isn't that large no longer is it common.

Answer 9

Hand signals are always the best, deaf or not.
http://www.deafdogs.org/training/signs.php

Answer 10

i suggst you keep her indoors and when outside watch over her
and i think animals adjust to there disablities.if she never has had hearing then sh dont miss it. its still sad but i think you sound like you are going to give her a good liife.
just please keep her away from danger OUTSIDE because witghout hearing she has a chance of getting hurt ran over and lots.

Answer 11

That is a hard QUESTION but i would have to say to go to a vet and ask about what possible things you can do.